Private Flying Renumeration?

[FNG]

10540, in your example of someone flying their own aircraft, the distinction between direct costs (fuel, oil, landing fees) and annual costs (maintenance, hangarage, insurance) becomes meaningful, as the only costs that may be shared are the direct ones. In that case,to assert that there is "no doubt" that the direct costs include maintenance is, well, confident.

I have never maintained an aeroplane, as I'm not a mechanic. I have owned an aeroplane, and paid people to fix it. Really, what's the point of all this wearisome discussion? The CAA does not mind when business people do a bit of flying to meetings, and does not mind when four blokes share the cost of spending a boozy evening in France. It does mind when people contrive elaborate dodges and wheezes, and so it should. You are evidently not short of cash, as you frequently remind us that you fly the finest and best equipped aeroplane in the world (on instruments, too!), so why do you care two hoots about any of this? We both have PPLs. We use them for different things, but we can afford them, and aren't they such fun?

Edit: Flying Lawyer, I have absolutely no objection to cost sharing amongst friends, on a friendly and voluntary basis (which, as you point out is sensibly recognised as valid by the CAA), but I detect the whiff of cheese if someone invites their friends to fly only on condition of contribution. Your view of human nature is perhaps more generous than my own, and, if so, this is commendable in a lawyer, as we see so much of the rotten side of life, but I can't help noticing how often the questions of this nature posed on this forum (not the current question) appear to be directed towards finding ways around the fact that a PPL is not a licence to earn money for flying. They are often posted by wannabe airline pilots looking for subsidised hour building. I don't suppose that your asked your friends to subsidise you in the precarious route to a practice at the Bar, and no more did I.

I would not like flying to be restricted to the wealthy, and some of the most enjoyable flying is the cheap-as-chips PFA variety (practised by, amongst others, several merchant bankers of my acquaintance), but one thing on which I agree with IO540's general stance on this forum is that there's no point in doing it if you really, truly can't afford it, and needing other people to pay for it is a pretty good indication that you can't afford it.