Originally Posted by mistarose
If the person who has operational control, is the person who decides when to terminate the flight ( in the air ) or before departure, choosing not to depart. And PIC is the one who has final authority to make these decisions...
Doesn't that make the PIC the one who always has operational control? It doesn't make sense, even in your situation where you "don't arrange to buy the airplane, maintain it, pay for it, or even put it in position for the flight." You still have operational control since you have final authority to terminate the flight.
Please tell me that I am wrong, since that would make any and every flight have to conduct operations under Part 135, except for 119.1 flights.
Thanks
Sorry for the delay in response. I've been on a trip...
I hope I understand what you are asking correctly. To answer though, two things. Is the flight for compensation or hire? If so, then who has operational control? The PIC is certainly one of those people, but I believe the owner of the aircraft would be another, and in a part 121 operation at an airline the dispatcher also has that authority. In fact, in my manuals the following statment is made: "persons who have authority to excercise operational control is delegated by order of precedence. Operational control is defined in FAR Part 1 as 'the exercise of authority over initiating, conducting, and terminating a flight.' Those person are: 1) Pilot in command, and 2) the Dispatcher." At my company the ONLY people who can dispatch a flight are the PIC AND Dispatcher. We both have to agree to go. Company management cannot force us to fly. However, company management can cancel a flight or ask us to terminate a flight already in the air. And of course this manual is specifically approved by our POI and the FAA.
If the flight is not for compensation or hire, say a typical trip for you and your buddies to get a $100 hambuger, the question is still important as to who has operational control, but mostly from a standpoint of who is PIC on the flight, who will get to make the final decisions and log the PIC time. Those flights are not part 135.