As a Private Pilot, is it legal to film a flight with Intention to post on YouTube, etc for Compensation

7 Answers

1. 
   

   
   

   Dan S. on Jul 06, 2015

   Check out the FAA Perry interpretation letter, dated July 28, 2010. It pretty clearly states that this is not permitted with a private certificate. You could probably argue specific details, but it looks like they’ve taken a stand regardless.

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2. 
   

   
   

   Steve on Jul 06, 2015

   As an Aviation YouTuber, and a Canadian, I can’t speak to the specifics of the FAA regs, but we do have similar regs. In my case, I can assure you that my production costs far exceed any revenue I generate, so it is moot to discuss the idea that I am being paid to fly – I am not.

   Here is what I tell people that ask similar questions:

   The epic “productions” that I have done feature training or some one else showing me a cool plane; in either case, I am not PIC, so I can pay myself as a film maker all day long (and that is actually what I do for a career, so it is not a stretch. – that said though – for the epic shoots, I often have additional crew shooting with me, and that’s where a lot of the budget goes :P)
   When I am acting as PIC, I am flying for the sake of flying, and I ignore the “set it and forget it” cameras. What I get is primarily for self analysis, of flights that I’d be doing anyway as a private pilot.
   And when I find cool things upon review, I decide to share them; and the editing process begins, which is where the real work is; and I pay myself after the fact, as an editor (Even some of the simpler videos can take 2-3 days full time to edit – the epic ones can go 10-15 days editing, PLUS I often outsource professional graphics and such).
   (For the record, the project is not generating enough revenue to exceed my production costs – it is still a passion project. )

   P.S. Who is raising $1600 / flying video on Patreon? I’m not at that level yet 😛

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3. 
   

   
   

   Dauntless Aviation - www.dauntless-soft.com on Jul 08, 2015

   I AM NOT A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.

   “I can assure you that my production costs far exceed any revenue I generate, so it is moot to discuss the idea that I am being paid to fly – I am not.”

   Not commenting on the rest of the discussion and this is totally independent of any FAA or other rules, but I hardly think that this is moot. I’d argue quite the opposite; if you receive or even seek so much as a penny of revenue, then you are of course being “paid to fly.” The character of what you did doesn’t suddenly change because suddenly you get more clicks/views or don’t happen to get the clicks/views that you anticipated (likewise, it’s not clear why the sentence for attempted murder should be less than that for murder, but that’s a discussion for another day and possibly philosophy class).

   Likewise, let’s say you as a business person (for the sake of argument let’s say you’re getting paid hourly) with a private pilot certificate fly to a client meeting that you would have gone to anyway – by my understanding this is perfectly legal per faa rules. however, you very much are getting “paid to fly” (yourself to the client) by your employer in this case, albeit in a legal way.

   whether or not you make a profit (and for that matter even revenue, if you attempt but fail to make any revenue) is not and should not ever be relevant to the discussion. I think the FAA has it right when they instead (as is my understanding, though I may be behind the times here a bit) consider whether the flight is “incidental” to the potentially revenue generating activity – as it would be in the case of you on the clock flying to a client to discuss quality paper goods but as would not be if your purpose to fly is primarily or largely to make a video.

   You can try justifying things, if asked with “well, i look for cool things to shoot and I *always* have a camera on.” You might get away with that once. And if you have good lawyer, maybe twice. Any more than that I think the FAA might rightly take a dim view.

   As far as the wisdom of the FAA’s basic policy regarding ‘incidentiality’, we can all debate that of course. My personal view is that a commercial pilot certificate is not that significant a hurdle, and to me it seems reasonable to ask those who engage in such potentially distaction-causing activities to reach this higher level of training and experience.

   FYI the perry letter is here:
   http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/interps/2010/perry%20-%20(2010)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf

   and is worth a read.

   I AM NOT A LAWYER. PLEASE DO NOT CONSTRUE ANY OF THIS MESSAGE AS LEGAL ADVICE.

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4. 
   

   
   

   Steve on Jul 08, 2015

   Point taken regarding my attempting to call the revenue generation discussion “moot”.
   And agreed that getting a commercial ticket is a great idea for added safety; however, it doesn’t make the process we’re discussing here any simpler. In fact, I’d argue that it makes it harder – if I got my commercial ticket and then did set out to intentionally fly as PIC and a film maker, I’d likely be violating the insurance under my rental agreement (I think I’d need to be a CFI on staff to actually do it). OR if I were an aircraft owner, I’d require a much more expensive insurance policy. So it isn’t simple to just get a CPL and call it a day.
   Regardless, in my case, when flying PIC as a private pilot, I do feel that my flying is not affected or altered because of the “set it and forget it” cameras which I use for a debriefing tool. I’m confident I can argue that my footage is incidental to the flights that would have happened anyway. AND I’d further argue that my thorough debriefing when I review the footage makes me safer for the next flight… When I actually set out and pre plan to “make a film” and the flight is clearly being undertaken for that purpose, I often have a crew and I am never PIC. In THOSE cases, the discussion of being paid as a private pilot IS moot, because I am not the pilot in command; so I can afford to dedicate part of my brain to the film, and of course, I can also justify generating revenue.
   All that to say, my situation is rather specific and unique. I do feel that there are YouTube aviators out there that are either closer to or actually crossing the line.

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5. 
   

   
   

   Nibake on Jul 10, 2015

   This is really an interesting question and after reading the Perry letter I don’t feel like that covers the circumstances well. The idea of making money from posting a video on the internet hasn’t been around that long. For me this raises a couple of questions.

   1. If anyone flies and then posts pictures or videos of the flight on the internet and makes, say $0.50 from google, is that a business by definition?
   2. Is it relevant whether you intend to make money? If so, how can you determine whether someone intends to make money on this sort of thing? If I video my child and then when on America’s Funniest Home Videos, is that a business, and what if this happens while a private pilot friend is flying the airplane?

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6. 
   

   
   

   Mark Kolber on Jul 14, 2015

   Nibake, the problem is that none if the FAA’s rules, interpretations or enforcement cases in this area are about operating a “business.” They are about someone receiving some form of benefit (“compensation”) in exchange for performing a service that involves flying an aircraft. They typical goals are two. To protect the public by requiring higher levels of certification and experience from those who transport persons or property for hire and to protect those who spent the time, money and other resources to reach those levels.

   You raise a number of good questions related to how the FAA can actually prove things in a particular case and that points out some of the difficulties with the concept. The Perry interpretation is an especially problematic one since it’s hard to see exactly how the act of a hobby photographer selling one of his photographs accomplishes either of the two goals. Perhaps the whole GoPro/YouTube phenomenon will result in revisiting the question and something that makes more sense.

   In the meantime, the practical realities of the enforcement process means that, despite the broad language that seems to encompass all sorts of things, the history of actual enforcement suggests the FAA doesn’t bother with much with this unless it truly “quacks like a duck” – looks like a business activity.

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