Originally Posted by
fjetter
You can have a single-pilot operation and management and have a different pilot be the single-pilot listed in your ops specs. For what you are trying to do you may be better off getting a LOA for aerial scenic tours. This means you can fly people for sightseeing w/in 25nm of departure airport for hire. The benefit of doing this over a 135 is that it is all legal under part 91 flight rules. The only thing you will have to in addition to what you do now is probably enroll in a drug and alcohol program.
A 135 would probably have way to much overhead for your limited operation. The huge kicker with 135 is gonna be the insurance on the aircraft. Not sure what type of plane you have but flight instruction insurance vs 135 insurance is quite different.
Thanks for the reply. The LOA for <25nm option is not all that attractive to me because the "big sights" in my area are roughly 40nm to 50nm out.
I re-read most of my bookmarked links. Most of them use language such as "single pilot / single plane" for the clause I'd love to use, however, there is a FAA document or two (of course I can't find it right now) that uses "owner/operator" language. That slight term/wording discrepancy is what got me nervous. "Owner/operator" (in my opinion) could possibly indicate that the operator (pilot)
must be the owner (of the airplane).
However, thanks to your reply, and other replies I have received in other forums, it looks like my assumption was wrong. Therefore, I can start to formulate a game plan.
Thank so much for your time!
ZP