Originally Posted by
Hot 'n' High
The difficulty, especially to a lay person, is sorting one from the other in that transition from “Charter Operations” to “charter operations” – sadly, there is no illuminated red dividing line. Maybe the best guide is “If it seems too good to be true….it probably is!”.
Thanks for your answer.
I realise what I wrote was not very clear. I meant that from my perspective, the passenger experience on a Trislander was more like the charter (big or small c, I don't know) flights I've flown on Piper Cherokees or similar, despite it not actually being so similar for the kinds of reason you mention. (Not wishing to decrease Aurigny's professionalism in any way here though, I enjoyed all my flights with them, even when the pilot did not appear sure whether they were coming or going "welcome ladies and gentlemen, we'll be heading over to... um...."!)*.
To summarise my questions again:
1) What are pilots' assessments, regulatory issues aside, of carrying paying passengers in a single-engined piston aircraft over water, especially around the Channel Islands (not a huge distance to land, but it might well be covered in fog and the waters there are not friendly even on a calm day)? Of course "zero risk does not exist" as we say in France but from what I've read above, the gap between the actual risks and how they are perceived by users, including for VIP transport commissionned by (must be careful here re: confidentiality) let us say a reputable client, seems rather alarmingly huge.
2) Looking at the regulatory side, what should one be looking for as minimum requirements in terms of pilot's license, rating, and business arrangements to ensure that other things being equal passengers would be 'normally' insured for the trip?
3) Apologies for my continued ignorance, but what is the subtelty surrounding N-registered aircraft, as opposed to G-registered aircraft flying in this airspace? Based on my experiences related above, I'd rate the N-registered flight more 'professionally' executed with regard to safety and procedures, but possibly not strictly speaking legitimate in terms of appropriate qualifications/cover?
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*I recall another Aurigny experience. My Guernsey-Jersey-Dinard flight was cancelled due to fog in Jersey (stop snickering) but somebody in Dinard chartered a plane from Aurigny which due to this WX had to come from Guernsey, so they flew me over all on my own on the shuttle flight (the pilot invited me to "spread myself around a bit"). Was this actually legal, regulated, insured...?