Originally Posted by mistarose
...The way I have been taught at my flight school up here in Washington, is too determine who has "operational control," in this case I do not have operational control, the guy with the airplane is arranging everything, im just flying. Is this right or wrong, its enough to interpret the regs...
Operational control is defined in 14 CFR Part 1.1 - "Operational control, with respect to a flight means the
exercise of authority over initiating, conducting or terminating a flight."
Pilot in command is defined in Part 1.1 - "means the person who: (1) has
final authority and responsibility for the operation and safety of the flight; (2) has been designated as pilot in command before or during the flight; and (3) holds the appropriate category...
You as the commercial pilot (assuming the aircraft owner is just a private pilot) will be PIC and you do have operational control. The order in which Part 61 describes pilot certification is not random, ie, private - commercial - ATP - CFI. It's in that order for a reason. My job description as a regional airline captain and our company's Flight Operations and Procedures Manual quotes these definitions verbatim. And as PIC I don't arrange to buy the airplane, maintain it, pay for it, even put it in position for it's scheduled flight. I just fly it.
