Originally Posted by
ofarre87
Can anyone help clear this up? Is it legal or not...
I am a Commercial pilot and have an offer to fly two passengers, no one has a plane. Can I rent an airplane and fly the passengers? If not, I also fly for a training company; Could the passengers hire plane and pilot from my company? Or do they need an operating certificate?
No. Yes. Yes.
We can get into all of the regs if you would like. It does get a little complicated. However, there is a list of activities in 14 CFR 119.1(e)(1)-(10) that details the type of flying a basic commercial pilot may do. Until you reach a minimum of 500 hours (1200 hours for IFR), you are pretty much limited to that list. If it's not one of those, you can be sure you must meet some sort of additional regulations, most likely part 135 On-Demand.
As was stated earlier, you could under the provision of 61.113(c) share the expenses of the flight. You will find that any aircraft rental agreement will prohibit you from operating that flight for compensation or hire.
You could also fly under private carriage. The aircraft owner would have to hire you to fly his owned aircraft and, of course, the insurance company would have to approve. It's been my experience that even then the insurance company will probably require you meet at least the minimum of pilot-in-command qualifications specified in 135.243(b) for VFR or 135.243(c) for IFR, and probably more.
As Slice put it, tread lightly here.