Another CAA charity flight document is here local copy
It looks like a later version of the above, plus a bit. Some very interesting stuff!
The UK CAA has issued some new rules on charity flights – here
I have not re-investigated the N-reg situation and assume nothing has changed i.e. the DfT (now CAA) permission is still required.
Well…. I finally got the permissions to do this, with an expiry date of 9th May (the expiry of my insurance).
Didn’t hear anything from the winner of the charity auction. That apparently happens quite often…
Guess who phones me yesterday (15th May, about 3 months later)?
I told him the authorisations have expired and no way am I doing this all again especially as the CAA is now charging 75 quid for the N-reg aerial work permission. He got a bit stroppy and is “suggesting” that I donate an amount equivalent to the cost of the flight to charity!
To his (partial, only) credit, it would appear that the charity printed the voucher without an expiry date on it. Human nature being what it is, if you leave a hole somewhere, somebody is bound to find it and climb into it.
bq7 The Annexes do NOT provide for the carriage of passengers on charity flights in:
a. Powered aircraft which do not hold a valid Certificate of Airworthiness (a Permit to Fly is not acceptable);. Quote
Has anyone had any experience of getting permission to do this in a PtF aircraft? Based at EGHH I can do the Isle of Wight or Jurassic Coast without exceeding the 25nm rule. With our 16:1 glide ratio, I am much happier over water than in a shagged rental. Combined with a 38knt Vs, 200m landing distance and ballistic parachute, arguably makes it a safer proposition than a lot of club aircraft.
If anyone’s had any luck doing this I’d love to hear.
A “charity” is an organisation which supposedly raises money for good causes (and isn’t supposed to spend it all in perks for its executives 
). It is a UK corporate structure, like a Limited Company etc but with different accounting rules and various tax concessions.
A charity flight is generally one where somebody donates money to an organisation which has the charitable status, in return for which somebody else (me in this case) agrees to take the donor for a flight. In my case the charity was this one.
So I don’t get any money for it, but money is “changing hands in connection with the flight”, and that alone makes the flight classified as “aerial work” in UK regs, and aerial work in non-G-reg aircraft requires the permission of the Secretary of State – currently the Department for Transport, soon moving to the CAA (who will sell the permissions from a website, a bit like the catholic church sells indulgences) as per the other thread.
What is the reason for getting a permit for a “charity flight”? What is it actually? Haven’t heard of it in Sweden… A tax deductible flight?
I have both permissions now.
DfT was quick and very helpful as always. The CAA > 25nm radius permission took much longer. Lots of restrictions from the CAA e.g.
In reality one would do this only on a nice day otherwise it is no fun for passengers. I went round there the other day in ~25kt surface wind and it was pretty rough, as one would always get < about 3000ft.
The CAA also wanted “logbook” evidence I have flown the route, as far as the Isle of Wight 
So I sent them my trip reports URL and that was OK.
It took loads of phone calls and faxes to arrange this. On this occassion, the DfT never received any emails from my email address (totally blacklisted, somehow, regardless of which SMTP server I used) but faxes worked, which (like me) they get delivered as PDFs
The problem is that (see other thread) if the CAA starts charging say £75 for the Article 223 permission, almost nobody is going to bother doing charity flights in a foreign reg plane. I am more than happy to do a charity flight in my plane, because I fly once a week even just for currency, but I am not going to pay an extra £75, or rent a (usually shagged) G-reg for it.
I can completely understand the CAA estimates £200k+ per year for doing the Art 223 permissions
Update:
You do need the DfT permission for a charity flight in an N-reg.
You also need a CAA permission if the radius is over 25nm – as per the AIC mentioned above which does apply to N-regs.
Both permissions can be obtained.
Insurance is not an issue providing (according to mine – Haywards) the pilot is not getting any money himself.
Thank you Tumbleweed.
So if I read it correctly I do need the DfT permission.
I emailed them yesterday but they haven’t replied, which is unusual for them. I am also checking the insurance.
