1) Your employer asks you to fly yourself to a meeting. Your employer pays for all the aircraft hire costs. But you recieve NO additional money for your piloting (and or professional services etc etc). That's legal
See the link to the CAA document. You can even carry your colleagues - so long as they are offered an alternative method of transport (IE they don't travel with you under duress), and it doesn't cost them ANY money.
Thanks for agreeing on that one - some here were arguing that even that was illegal!
2) Your main business is not aviation. You hire an aircraft to fly some customers to see a yacht. (You're not doing it for free. The passengers aren't cost sharing). What you're getting the customers to do is pay for the aircraft hire, and then pay for your piloting skills. Doesn't matter how you 'dress' it up, that's what your doing. Bet the potential yacht buyers wouldn't get the trip if the REFUSED to pay for the aircraft hire or for your individual 'yachting services'
Yes, but see my immediately preceding post. In France at least, the passengers can choose to rent a light aircraft without pilot, then they can separately hire a pilot to fly them. If the pilot happens to be me, that is fine (even better for them as I don't actually charge them anything for the flying, and then I can be useful on the ground on arrival at the destination). As long as the aircraft hire is invoiced directly to the client, then this is legal in France at least (and I would be surprised if the UK was more restrictive than France).
Your passengers do have a choice. You tell them about a yacht. What stops them from hiring not only the aircraft and a pilot (from the AOC holder you'd be hiring the aircraft from anyway) and then taking you along purely as a yacht sales representative????? The answer is nothing
Except that it costs a lot more, and one seat is taken by somebody who does nothing except fly the plane.
I'm amazed the place you hire from lets you. After all, you're only taking business from them.
No, I am bringing them business. The aircraft would sit idly on the tarmac if it was not for my industry.
Your opening post sets the scene when you describe the work as 'Air Taxi'
. Admittedly clumsy wording, that is all.
Sorry but no matter how you twist this the facts won't change
And comparing aviation to car driving is a last desperate 'grasp at straws' almost as logical as comparing flying to the moon with eating a curry
On the contrary, I think it is a very apt comparison. I am not trying to belittle professional pilots, but it is perfectly possible for somebody to fly a plane professionally and safely, but not actually be paid for it and earn their living in another profession.