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4 Answers

AOPA blog: Ride-sharing / What do you think about this?

Asked by: 4405 views FAA Regulations, General Aviation

Seems like if implemented in the US, this may easily and frequently conflict with many of the FAA's distinctions between private and commercial pilot privileges. Any thoughts on this idea/system and whether it is possible in the US?

 

Source: http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=4138

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4 Answers



  1. Pilot Mission on Oct 04, 2012

    I could see the FAA having some significant concerns about Ride-sharing especially as far as cost sharing goes. Do I agree with the FAA’s stance on all of these issues? Not exactly. From what I understand (and I may be mistaken), technically, you can’t even split the cost of a flight if you and your co-pilot/passenger aren’t sharing a common interest in arriving at a particular destination. i.e. you cannot fly your buddy to meet his/her other friends at the beach for the weekend and receive ANY monies for fuel/oil/etc whatsoever if you aren’t staying there as well (or share a “common interest”). But hey, I’m not a lawyer so do NOT take any of that as legal advice!

    Huge gray area, of course, but it goes to show how the 50/50 rule isn’t as clear cut as we’d like to think. I can readily admit I wasn’t clear on the rules when I was going through my private pilot training, thats for sure!

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  2. Pilot Mission on Oct 04, 2012

    Also, from the pilot’s perspective, there are some huge liability issues at stake both on the FAA/regulatory end and the passengers end. Say someone is hurt in an unfortunate accident, and you aren’t “friends” (doesn’t really matter in this day/age… lawyers could convince you to sue your mom! jk), what are the chances of a lawsuit? Could flyers.com be held responsible by some odd extension? Let’s hope not… but it is an awesome idea.

    It will require some brave and generous folks to make something like this run, but I hope it works out. It sure would be great for GA, but it’s certainly a concept fraught with risks.

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  3. Gary on Oct 04, 2012

    I think it’s a great idea. This is something that I already do a lot of times when going especially to popular places such as Las Vegas. It’s a shame to have empty seats when traveling cross country when general aviation is so much more convenient.

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  4. Matthew Waugh on Oct 05, 2012

    It’s fine if it stays as defined – which is to say pilots post trips, passengers respond. Because you have clearly defined that the pilot has a common purpose in going to the location (they were going anyway). If it devolves into passengers posting places they’d like to go – well that’s not going to work.

    As for the liability concerns – that’s why you have insurance. If your insurance isn’t sufficient to protect you when you take a buddy flying for a pancake breakfast then it’s not sufficient for this exercise.

    Flyers.com will doubtless be an LLC – run off hosted servers with no assets. By all means sue them – they’ll mail you the current set of invoices and establish flyers1.com – repeat, rinse.

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