Originally Posted by
Squawk7700
This chap was a PPL with plenty of hours and I would have never flown with him.
A local social group had recently auctioned off a ticket for a joy-flight in his aircraft to the highest bidder.
He died shortly after when he ran his 172 into a power line when doing a beat-up of his neighbors property on Christmas morning as he had done previously for a number of years.
Read about that here:
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp....1225-754q.html
Sad story. Flight time is not the issue here in my opinion but the mere fact that tickets for a joy flight in a C172 in a private operation were auctioned to the highest bidder just doesn't pass the smell test here. Why that? What's there to auction anyway? The price would be capped by equal cost sharing so for four occupants in a 172 that's roughly $50/person/hour, plus maybe $20/4 = $5 in landing fees (at an expensive strip). Therefore I find it quite an overkill for a "local social group" to auction that.
What's the strict legality of selling "tickets" for private flights anyway? Who's the emitting entity? The private pilot? The aircraft operator or owner?