Thank you to everybody who has contributed advice to my original question, whether your advice was correct or proven to be incorrect. The arguments have allowed me to establish that it in France it is legal to carry passengers or goods during the course of my job by operating privately and ensuring that the passenger or owner of the goods pays directly for the hire of the aircraft. They can even pay me,when appropriate, though as ria sispanys points out, I could even do these flights with a PPL so I am not "undercutting" anybody if I choose not to charge. This has all been confirmed by my CAA. This is what I will continue to do, until my flying experience is worth enough on the free market to enable me to get a paying flying job.
The advice on here has made me think more carefully about the risks of "holding out" to try to get some more flights, and I will certainly avoid organising the hire/insurance of the aircraft myself, which I admit to having innocently done on a couple of occasions in the past in a desire to be as helpful as possible to the the person ultimately paying for the flight.
Last edited by richatom; 4th Apr 2008 at 08:32.