So your objection is that I used an imprecise word and therefore you cannot have a discussion about the topic?
My objection is that you attributed to the court something that it did not say. That's at the root of all the hysteria here. And "passenger" is not merely an incorrect word, it's the
wrong word. The regs and the FAA are clear that "passenger" and "person" have different meanings. And indeed, while a passenger must be a person, a person might not be a passenger. In fact, the difference between these words is
so significant, that if the regulation in question had said "passenger" instead of "person," the whole case likely would have come out differently, and if the court had, in fact, said "passenger" instead of "person," as you stated, then the hysteria would actually be warranted! This is not trivial semantics, and it's why my crim law professor admonished us to "never paraphrase a statute!"
A shift has happened and people are trying to figure out what it means.
Maybe.
One of the shifts states the CFI has become the operator of every training flight and they are conducting carriage for compensation.
But that's not it. If anything, the crux of the FAA's notification is that a CFI may be
an operator of an aircraft being used for instruction. Another important distinction.
The term carriage implies the pilot must become a passenger of the instructor.
It really doesn't. And the FAA has said repeatedly that students and CFIs on a dual flight are not passengers. That's why it's significant that 91.315 and the court's order don't use the word "passenger," and why it's so important that we use the right words when discussing them.
What else does this impact that nobody, including the FAA, has considered yet?
Apparently it impacts the supports for the whole FARs according to some. But if the FAA isn't considering it, why does it matter? The FAA has already said that it wasn't its intent to apply this holding broadly, but since EAA and AOPA forced them to make a statement, this policy statement was actually the best we could hope for. The FAA saying, yes, the reg. means what it says, we'll give you a workaround for now, and we will fix it down the road.