Originally Posted by
Senior Skipper
Am I to understand that when I get my CPL, it would be illegal for me to charge my friends for a flight out to the Bahamas?
Yes.
Originally Posted by
Senior Skipper
...If I go to the FBO (as a CPL) and rent a plane, and charge somebody $150 an hour (plane cost+my fee), I am a commercial operator
but,
If somebody rents the plane, and I collect $50 an hour (as a CPL), I'm merely a commercial pilot
So the difference comes down to who provides the airplane? If I provide it, it's illegal, but if the pax provide it, then all is well?
Close. NoyGonnaDoIt did a good job laying it out. In the first case you would be a commerical pilot "holding out" your services and face additional regulatory requirements. The FBO won't rent you the airplane anyway.
The second depends on how the pax obtained the aircraft. If he went out and bought it or lease it, and hired you to fly it, then that would be private carriage. Assuming the insurance company, leasing company, bank, or whomever really owned the airplane approved you, you would be fine. However, if you started to then use that experience to begin marketing yourself to other private owners, ie, "holding out" as a pilot for hire, trying to fly for several different owners at the same time, the issue starts to get gray again. The FAA gets very concerned and restrictive when an individual commercial pilot with very little experience begins flying potentially unsuspecting people around the sky. That's why the list of exceptions is detailed in 119.1(e)(1)-(10) and why almost all "wet-ticket" commercial pilots end up building time through one of those activities, like flight instructing (as a CFI), banner towing, ferrying airplanes, etc.