Cost sharing as CPL

[FlyingFrisian]

First post here! I have been reading through quite a few posts about the dreaded topic of cost sharing.

A quote from a post in that category:

"As a PPL, you must cover an equal portion of the flight. I believe the poster is pointing out that the flight wouldn’t cost £300 if split equally and therefore some is making money."
Okay, that has been clear for a while."
"Nothing wrong with that. But if the pilot is remunerated for doing so he needs a CPL."

Now, you have a CPL.. You rent a Cessna and you take some passengers along. Are you still required to split the costs on equal basis? I've come to learn that there are still a lot of grey areas and in most cases you would need an AOC to operate. I couldn't really find a clear answer in the EASA Easy Access rules either. Any hot takes?

[Boabity]

It’s very situational and in terms of insurance and the local caa - probably not that grey.
perhaps If you shared with us more about what you want to achieve in your specific circumstance then it’ll be fairly easy to tell if you need to share costs


Now, you have a CPL.. You rent a Cessna and you take some passengers along. Are you still required to split the costs on equal basis? I've come to learn that there are still a lot of grey areas and in most cases you would need an AOC to operate. I couldn't really find a clear answer in the EASA Easy Access rules either. Any hot takes?

In this instance you need to operate under an AOC, you are hiring the plane and charging passengers to join you. If there's no AOC then you must cost share.
Now, it's possible they could hire the plane and pay you to fly it for them - however this needs to be well documented because should there be an accident and you didn't get it right, you and/or your estate would get a very large bill and potential prosecution.
Truly, the only surefire situation that you could be paid (with a CPL), or for free (with any licence). Is if someone hired you to fly the plane that they own personally whether there were passengers or not, so the owner of the aircraft is covering the costs and neither you nor the passengers pay a penny (with the exception of the costs of fuel)

The EASA "Easy Access Rules" are far from what the name implies.

[B2N2]

Its quite easy really, a Private pilot cannot exercise the privileges of a CPL but a CPL holder can exercise the privileges of a PPL.


Therefore if you are sharing cost equally you are exercising PPL privileges.
Anything more and you’re very like straying into Commercial territory for which you lack the additional certification required.

[CAVOKpilot]

With B2N2 on this, you could continue to split costs and fly under your PPL privileges. If you wanted to be paid commercially you'd need to be operating under the part-CAT (commerical air transport) and then you're talking insurance, airline operating certificate and other regulatory frameworks. Realistically to be paid commercially, you're going to need be in employment by an entity that holds an AOC.