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2 Answers

Pro rata sharing

Asked by: 9144 views FAA Regulations

Is there anything that may cause a private pilot having his/her passengers pay less than the pro rata share to not sit well with the FAA?  The regulation only says that the pilot can't pay less than the pro rata share, which should mean the passengers could pay less than it.  I've just never heard of this before and I wasn't sure if it jives well with the "equality" of purpose and cost sharing usually associated with splitting flight expenses.

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2 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Mar 04, 2012

    Yes.  The passengers can pay less than their pro rata share.  They can even pay nothing at all.  The rule is specifically for the private pilot so that he can’t engage in “commercial” operations without further experience and testing.

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  2. Ernest R Ortner III on Mar 08, 2012

    As a private pilot you cannot charge someone to fly with you.  The most you can get is to have your passengers pay the pro rata share, they can pay nothing but no more than.  This all works in line with the fact that you cannot fly someone to a destination unless you are also making that your destination, whether they pay or not, e.g.  You have a friend who wants to go to a concert a couple of cities away but you are not going to the concert.  You can’t fly him to the city where the concert is and drop him off, unless you have a reason you want to go to that city than he could ride along with you.  The safest way to remember what you can and can’t do is to make sure in every situation the passenger is going with you not using you, and they never pay more than you did. 
    As Wes said above.  This is all to prevent you from using your private pilot certificate in a commercial capacity.
    The legal jargon for all that I explained can be found in Part 61.113 (a)(b)(c).  AOPA has also written a few articles on this subject I would suggest giving them a search on their website.

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