Guess who's plodding his way through air law at the moment.....Here's the relevant section of the ANO 2000, make of it what you will, especially part bb) which answers Andy's comment about the proportion of costs that can be shared <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> I think it means the pilot has to put an equal share in <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
(ii)
(aa) no more than 4 persons (including the pilot) are carried on such a flight;
(bb) the proportion which such contribution bears to the total direct costs of the flight shall not exceed the proportion which the number of persons carried on the flight (excluding the pilot) bears to the number of persons carried on the flight (including the pilot);
(cc) no information concerning the flight shall have been published or advertised prior to the commencement of the flight other than, in the case of an aircraft operated by a flying club, advertising wholly within the premises of such a flying club in which case all the persons carried on such a flight who are aged 18 years or over shall be members of that flying club; and
(dd) no person acting as a pilot on such a flight shall be employed as a pilot by or be a party to a contract for the provision of services as a pilot with the operator of the aircraft being flown on the flight.
I think we have to be pragmatic about this though. If you:
a) advertise in your local paper "local flights, £35 each for one hour for three people" and you're paying £105 ph for aircraft hire, you're going to get done.
b) as a one off, have a couple of mates saying "please, please, please take us flying for an hour, we'll pay" no one's realistically going to know who paid how much towards the a/c hire are they?