Originally Posted by
The Wawa Zone
LeadSled, sorry I missed your reply for three months; I need to maintain my 0.03 posts per day batting average.
Answer: A private flight with your mates is a private flight where you can pretty much decide what to do and terrify them in the process. A commercial operation is a hire and reward service provided to people you do not know who are paying you to represent the AOC holder and provide a flight within your personal limits, the aircraft's limits and the environmental limits, ie. a far higher standard is required.
That may be a piece of piss to you and I, however at some point we were both "the pilot who may very well be in his/her first commercial flying job", ie., at a transition point where a guiding hand is required.
Wawa Zone,
Sorry to burst your bubble, but my "first flight for hire and reward" was on a PPL --- and all quite legal, a CPL was only required at that time and place, if passengers were carried. As for carrying passengers at the time and place, under 12,500 lbs, still no AOC, just the pilot had to have a CPL.
I was also instructing on a PPL.
As for "far higher standards" --- what "far higher standards"?? In GA, in all my years flying, I have never detected a "far higher standard" of actual flying from a CPL versus a PPL, so maybe your standard is to measure by the weight of paperwork??
The present AOC system was, in fact, never intended for light aircraft charter, the old "license" system worked perfectly well, what has happened is a prime example of "bracket creep" in a regulatory sense, and CASA's insatiable desire to micromanage every aspect of Australian aviation.
Tootle pip!!