Hey all, I just recently passed my CSEL initial checkride and during the oral, the questions about flying for hire came up. The typical question of "can you fly a high performance aircraft (Piper PA-32R) for a private individual under private carriage" and the answer is yes if I got a high performance sign off. Right now I personally could not due to not having the high performance sign off.
The examiner went a step further and then asked could this individual with the airplane hire me anyway and pay for my flight training to get the sign off. This tripped me up a bit and I answered; "this is somewhat of a gray area of flying for compensation because if they pay for my flight training, that is a form of compensation but I would not be fulfilling the duties of what they hired me for, flying them and their family around under private carriage. I told the DPE that I would say no this is not okay, but I could contact the FSDO for clarification. The DPE seemed to have accepted that answer and I forgot to clarify during the debrief if it's fine for a commercial pilot to receive flight training for a sign off or rating under private carriage rules. What do you all think?
The examiner went a step further and then asked could this individual with the airplane hire me anyway and pay for my flight training to get the sign off. This tripped me up a bit and I answered; "this is somewhat of a gray area of flying for compensation because if they pay for my flight training, that is a form of compensation but I would not be fulfilling the duties of what they hired me for, flying them and their family around under private carriage. I told the DPE that I would say no this is not okay, but I could contact the FSDO for clarification. The DPE seemed to have accepted that answer and I forgot to clarify during the debrief if it's fine for a commercial pilot to receive flight training for a sign off or rating under private carriage rules. What do you all think?
