Originally Posted by
Clearedtoreenter
Max
I don’t think ‘where money has changed hands’ is the issue. Even in poor Mr Sala’s case, in that aircraft, if it was fully serviceable, with a properly licensed pilot, acting within the law, that fight should have been safe, whether money was paid or not.
I was once familiar with an organisation of the type you describe. Yes, the legality of the organisation’s private/cost sharing might be questionable. But they used private pilots (who paid some proportion of the flight costs) for flying sort of ‘fare paying’ children from a young persons organisation, where the flights were advertised. They flew thousands of children around the block over many years and as far as I know had no serious issues. They were very well organised and pilots were well trained and checked by a high ranking instructor very regularly before they were allowed to take part. I believe CASA were aware of this operation and gave at least tacit approval. Unfortunately, this organisation suffered some very badly managed political problems and whist they did have an AOC and training approvals I have no idea how or whether they operate now as I have moved far away. I am not implying that this is/was the organisation you might be thinking of. There are a few such organisations.
Quite so, but I would guess that the permitted handing over of money under the "private flight/cost sharing" scenario is intended to cover "mates flying with mates" or hours building, and not to allow what is effectively the sale of flights to the general public under a lighter-touch regulatory regime of which the passenger might not be aware (and perhaps with insurance implications as per LeadSled's example above).