Charity Airplane Ride Donations

Phil:

I read with interest your charity airplane ride page
(http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/charity).

I'm contemplating a similar donation for local charities. My
question is, how does the FAA view this? Is it considered "flying
for hire," requiring a commercial certificate?

I'm in the process of attaining my commercial but don't have it yet,
and I'm trying to figure out how this factors into charity airplane
rides.

Thanks,
Dave

-- Dave Todaro, September 20, 2006

Answers

I'd love to hear comments on this matter also. Since our host is a CFI maybe he could shed some light instead of the alternative: calling a district FAA rep and getting a lecture. Phil, would you enlighten us please? Thank you for any reply. Regards, Mark

-- Mark Dalton, September 23, 2006

I found some great info on the AOPA site here:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/regulatory/charity.html

Dave

-- Dave Todaro, October 9, 2006

Thanks very much!!

-- Mark Dalton, October 10, 2006

The FAA has revised their rules to increase the minimum number of hours for private pilots from 200 to 500. See this publication from the FAA for an explanation:

http://download.aopa.org/epilot/2007/070208airtour.pdf

-- Dave Todaro, February 9, 2007