Do you give your friends "free" rides?

I like giving rides and I've never charged anyone yet - although I'd fly more often if they did. (No, money does NOT grow on trees.) One friend wants to go more often and has offered to pay his share. I'll probably accept some of that.

How's this - my brother-in-law used to own a B-25 and gave quite a few free rides in that! At the time, fuel was about $500/hr.
 
Rides have always been mostly for my benefit (FUN) so I've never asked for or accepted compensation (other than an occasional lunch).

Besides; after that one flight with a roll on takeoff no one has asked to fly with me...*

*(just kidding)

Chris
 
bqmassey said:
I'm not a pilot yet. The one thing holding me back is money, so I've thought about this issue a lot.

What I've decided to do is let any of my friends/family that want a ride have one for free. After that, if they want to fly, they have to pay their share.

I hate to ask for money from people, I really do. Especially to fly, as aviation is something I LOVE to share with people, but $$$ is the one thing that's separating me from my future career.

I eat Ramen instead of eating out, so I can put another $5 in the PPL-H fund. When I'm in a position where I don't have to do that anymore, I probably won't ask pax to pay in.
Click to expand...

So what career are you planning to pursue? Based on your financial plans (no more Ramen) it sounds like aviation isn't one of them.
 
I've been flying since 1976 and have never accepted any money from
anyone I took with me.

In the 2 1/2 yrs I've had my experimental flying I've never had anyone
else in it. I don't even have insurance. I tried to get it when I completed
the plane and the EAA insurance agency set forth training requirements that
were impossible to meet, given that I had to fly off the initial 40 hrs
before I could take anyone else along.
 
A few years ago I could barely afford to take a person flying. I'd always do it and I'd hope that they would offer to pay their equal share. Some did, some didn't.

These days things are a little better. I'll take anyone flying that asks and I generally refuse payment unless it is a long common-purpose cross country and I know the person can afford it.

Introducing people to general aviation while bringing the money issues into play completely ruin the experience.

At PoA events, like Gastons, I try to take every person flying that I can find that didn't fly an airplane into Gastons. This year I managed to give about 15 rides during all that bumpy wind. I don't even remember all of the people--I just looked for those that didn't have an airplane and made sure they got into the sky at least once. It probably cost me about $400 but it was worth it.
 
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My flying is limited by work and weather constraints. The fuel costs have NEVER
slowed down my flying - even with the recent rise in fuel costs.
 
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