Commercial Ride Questions

[MusketeerMan]

I'm sure this has been brought up numerous times, but does anyone have a simple explanation of the whole "common carriage" category? I'm struggling with it and I'm sure it will come up on my oral...scheduled for 7/13.

What exactly can a CSEL pilot do for hire? What can't I do for hire?

[planejay]

I had this question come up on my ride. FAR 119.1 tells you what you are able to do with your cert. The whole common carriage thing is some what of a judgement call, there is an advisory circular that kind of helps but I can't remember the number on it, maybe do a search. Good luck on the ride!!! Let us know how it goes.~Jay

[launchpad]

part 119 specifies what types of operators need a certificate from the FAA to do business (i.e. advertise, hold out, etc. etc.).....The list of things in 119.1 are businesses or operators that are exempt from needing an air carrier certificate (119, 135, 121) from the FAA. In other words, you can do whatever you want (hold out) as long as it falls under those exempt items. If you need more specifics, I would ask your instructor to clarify these things before you go up for your checkride. Common carriage is also defined under 1.1 or 61.1 (i'm not sure of the exact one)...

[casey]

in a nutshell, 119.1 tells you what you can do as a commercial pilot without an operating certificate (flight instruction, pipeline/powerline patrol, limited sightseeing, etc). The "common carriage" thing relates to "holding out" your services. "Holding out" your services basically means you are advertising your services, whether it be by flyer, business card, word of mouth, or even someone elses word of mouth.

AC-120-12A spells it out a little better, "common carriage" is :

"holding out" a willingness to transport persons or property from place to place for compensation. This "holding out" which makes a person a common carrier can be done in many ways and it does not matter how it is done.

You asked what you *can* do with a commercial pilot cert, and that answer is that you may act as PIC of an aircraft for compensation or hire. What you may not do is hold yourself out as a common carrier. You may however hold yourself out for the exceptions in 119.1 (advertising yourself as a flight instructor is ok, etc).

One of the scenarios i used to give students was a guy comes up to you and asks you to take him to XYZ and offers to pay you. This isnt quite as related to the above, since you may not have held yourself out to perform this service, but in this case that you are providing the airplane and flying the customer "on demand", you are in need of an operating certificate to perform this service. (charter/on demand is not in the exceptions in 119.1).

The alternate to this service is a guy with an airplane comes to you and asks wants to hire you to fly his airplane from A to B. This is ok because you are solely being paid to act as pilot in command of an aircraft, not for the airplane, etc.

The area is very gray in a lot of ways, and imho one of the more confusing aspects to the commercial certificate.

[VicariousLiving]

Originally Posted by casey

The alternate to this service is a guy with an airplane comes to you and asks wants to hire you to fly his airplane from A to B. This is ok because you are solely being paid to act as pilot in command of an aircraft, not for the airplane, etc. Just make sure you arent holding out a willingness to do this for everyone, and you should be ok.

There is absolutely nothing illegal regarding a pilot advertising for a pilot job flying an aircraft for the aircraft's owner no matter how extensive that advertising might be, nor how many such jobs s/he accepts at any given time. Nothing illegal at all.

[casey]

Originally Posted by VicariousLiving

There is absolutely nothing illegal regarding a pilot advertising for a pilot job flying an aircraft for the aircraft's owner no matter how extensive that advertising might be, nor how many such jobs s/he accepts at any given time. Nothing illegal at all.

you're right, i started that paragraph with one train of thought and ended on another I'll fix my post.