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5 Answers

Dry lease pilot contract

Asked by: 2219 views , ,
FAA Regulations

Good afternoon,
I’m FAA commercial and CFI helicopter .
I’ve been contacted by different persons to be pilot on a helicopter under dry lease for individual and for an hotel / resident  club members.

For the first case the helicopter will be dry leased by an individual for private uses under PART 91 and the lessee will hire me as contract pilot .

For the second case the same helicopter will be dry leased by an hotel for the hotel club members uses under PART 91 and the hotel will hire me as a contract pilot .

I just want to make sure I’m not illegal doing those flights  ?

Hope you will have the answers to my questions.

Best regards 

will

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5 Answers



  1. LTCTerry on Mar 12, 2020

    I’m prepping for the ME commercial checkride later this month. As a glider commercial pilot “holding out” etc. hasn’t been an issue. Certainly not gospel, but here’s how I would see this if asked during an oral:

    One vs. many – in your first example the helicopter would be “owned” by the business. You would fly it for the business. All flying would be limited to employees of that business, one small group. In your second example anyone – aka the general public – would be available to access the helicopter (“club members uses”). This looks, to me, like the hotel would be “holding out,” offering the helicopter to anyone. I see this a Part 135 charter, not Part 91 corporate flying.

    Looking forward to hearing from others.

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  2. willycopter on Mar 12, 2020

    Thank you for your answer
    But on the second case the club members are paying to subscribe to this “club member card” to have more advantage including the helicopter flights or it’s Beacause they own an appartement in the residence .
    So the flights will be limited to this small group of persons and not sell to anyone.

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  3. Mark Kolber on Mar 12, 2020

    Bottom line is you have asked a difficult question, one which cannot be answered without a full review of the leases and the way the operation actually works. If you are an AOPA member, you can take a look at the article by Jared Allen in the March 2020 AOPA magazine, “Who is in Control Here.” I’m linking to it in a separate message because this site sometimes removes posts with outside links.

    If you think the article is complicated, add to it such questions as who is actually the lessee, the hotel or a separate company formed by the hotel, and the possible application of the so-called “Alaska exception” (employee pilot/guides of a back-country tour may fly the guests because it is “merely incidental” to the package), and the exceptions to the exception.

    Then, of course, there’s the common but incorrect belief that so-called “private carriage” is Part 91 and does not require a Part 135 operating certificate.

    That’s not the kind of question I would be asking SGOTI.

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  4. Mark Kolber on Mar 12, 2020

    This is the link to the AOPA article

    http://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/march/pilot/for-the-record-who-is-in-control

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  5. KDS on Mar 13, 2020

    Mark gave you an excellent answer and I’ll just add that obtaining a single-pilot single-aircraft 135 certificate is relatively simple. (If anything involving the government can be called simple.)

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