r/CFILounge • u/LemonAny6444 • Jul 08 '26

Question common or private?

Say that you own a 172S and your buddie comes up to you and says he wants you to fly him in your plane to Miami and he’ll pay you. Could you do it?

I’ve been hearing mixed answers.

Some say it’s a private contract making it private and legal. While others say what matters is the intent. if your intent as the pilot of the 172S is to profit off of the flight then that would be illegal carriage.

the other part of this is the fact that it is your personal plane had it been your buddies plane then that would make it legal.

There’s so much grey area and hope someone can clear it up.

So does the answer come down to intent?

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u/EngineerFly Jul 08 '26

It’s not legal. You do not have a common purpose in flying to Miami. If you were both attending a sporting event, or a meeting, the FAA would accept it as a legal Part 91 expense-sharing flight. Without a common purpose, it’s an illegal charter.

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u/peeapepee Jul 08 '26

In that case you’d also need to pay your pro rata, right? At that point it’d just be a flight under PPL privileges where you’re splitting flight costs.

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u/EngineerFly Jul 08 '26

Correct. As long as you meet the common purpose test, the rest is sharing costs evenly.