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Seasonal Aerial Right Seater

Asked by: 1863 views
FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Private Pilot

I’m a private pilot that’s building hours, and I came across a job offer for a seasonal aerial right seater with the description:

  • Assist pilot and observe from the right seat position of Aircraft

Since the job only lists “assist”, would I be able to log hours as a safety pilot or something while getting paid since I wouldn’t be acting as PIC? Are there any regulations against this? I know the FARs prohibit pay for hire as PIC with a PPL

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1 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Apr 17, 2024

    The short answer is that this job probably isn’t a good way to build time, if that’s your concern.

    The limitation on pay for private pilots is that you may not ACT as PIC (61.113) or SIC (61.117) for pay, nor may the aircraft be carrying passengers or property for hire. It doesn’t say anything about what you can log.

    If sounds like the job you are considering is something where there is a pilot and a right-seat, non-pilot observer. Like some kind of patrol flight, traffic reporting, fish spotting, something like that. So the right seater could be anybody, and that’s what you are hired to do, not to be a pilot.

    I’ll assume it’s a Part 91 operation and the aircraft only requires one pilot.

    In such an aircraft, you can only log PIC hours for time you are actively manipulating the controls and are rated for the airplane (61.51e). So if the pilot lets you fly, that’s loggable.

    You mention “safety pilot”. This is a specific term for when the other pilot is flying under the hood. Then you would be a required crewmember, and could log SIC. If you and the other pilot agreed that you would be acting as PIC during the flight, you could log PIC. However, that would mean in your case that you’re getting paid to act as PIC, and that violates the Private Pilot limitations. Also, certainly whatever operation you’re getting paid to do wouldn’t allow the pilot to be under the hood (an assumption but I think a pretty good one).

    If the pilot is a CFI, then he or she could choose to log some of your time as training time, and would sign your logbook with the tasks covered like a normal lesson. This starts to get questionable though if you’re not supposed to be flying the plane, but observing. Also, would he or she really be legitimately teaching you anything? Maybe you could do some of this on repositioning flights, getting to where you’re supposed to be observing, etc.

    So there are a few possible ways to log some time, maybe, but if you’re looking for a time-building job, this isn’t it. If you’re just looking for a job that gets you in the air and is better than sitting at a desk, maybe this is an opportunity.

    And of course, maybe you move into the left seat some day when they see how motivated you are. Hint, hint.

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