Regarding passengers – can I take anybody with me as a passenger and for as long and as many times as I want?
Yes.
If it is a woman then you better clear it with your wife, but that is not related to aviation 
@johnh no the Vol découverte or discovery flight by any club member with a PPL who has been nominated by the club to do them. To be nominated the pilot must have a minimum of 25hours in the preceding 12 months. The flight is a maximum of 30 mins.
@Laurent_N do you mean can you carry passengers in a rental plane?
If so the answer is yes providing you have made 3 take offs and landings in the same class of aircraft in the previoudd 90 days. There is no reason why you couldn’t do the 3 take off and landings then pick up your passengers and go.
Peter wrote:
If it is a woman then you better clear it with your wife, but that is not related to aviation
That was good :)
gallois wrote:
If so the answer is yes providing you have made 3 take offs and landings in the same class of aircraft in the previoudd 90 days. There is no reason why you couldn’t do the 3 take off and landings then pick up your passengers and go.
Thank you. Yes, I am aware of this.
So the only tricky part is getting paid (not you as a pilot but for the fuel, plane rental or maintenance if it is your plane) to fly that passengers from A to B. I will try to look in some legislation from my country or EASA rules (even though I hate legislation). I was thinking that a commercial pilot can easily get paid to fly people from A to B with his plane but it looks like you need an AOC which might not be allowed with pistons.
Cost sharing is an EASA reg. Direct costs however remain poorly defined if you are an owner.
A CPL is worthless in Europe for any “human cargo” outside of an AOC charter context.
Piston charter needs ME – see above. And AOC.
Most of the non ATPL commercial pilots I meet here fall into 6 categories of work.
1/ Flight Instructor/ Flight examiner
2/ Sky diving and parachute launch pilots
3/ Working as air chauffeur to an individual or company .
4/ Air ambulance (I think this needs special CAA agreement outside of an AOC
5/ Attached to police or coast guard services
6/ And this seems to be the busiest market at the moment “aerial surveillance work”
1 +2 are often done in SEPs but 2 is also done as much from SETs.
3,5,6 are more likely to be twins
3,+ 4 are often SETs or METs.
There may well be others which I have missed.
Oh I did forget one for SEPs and that is banner towing.
We don’t have much aerial agricultural work in France outside of surveillance.
I only know about air ambulance jobs from pilots I have met at La Rochelle. I believe there is an air ambulance company there.
The other pilot I knew, was my MEIR flight examiner who ran an ATO. Sadly he died at the beginning of this year ( not aviation related).
He had a TBM 700C and local doctors and the parents approached him to use it to take a little girl to Paris for life saving treatment. It needed some internal reorganisation of the inside of the aircraft to allow for stretchers etc and that was done by students and other instructors at the ATO, overnight. But I remember him telling me that he had to get a dispensation from the DGAC to do the flight.
The pilot Gabriel Olivier was a wonderful man a great teacher and a visionary. The company is Iroise Aero Formation based out of Brest. I have lost touch since Gabriel died. I admit that the heart went out of me when it came to travelling to Brest. It’s a long way just for a couple of hours of flying. However, all the people I have met there have been super friendly and super passionate. I think Laly is now running the company. Nice guy, good instructor, speaks English. Take a look at their website and talk to Laly about what you want to do. I’m pretty sure he can advise.
no the Vol découverte or discovery flight by any club member with a PPL who has been nominated by the club to do them. To be nominated the pilot must have a minimum of 25hours in the preceding 12 months. The flight is a maximum of 30 mins
OK, I’m afraid I was a bit hazy on the details. But the bottom line is that you can’t fly for more than 30 mins (not 45) without being a member of the aeroclub which in my experience mewans paying for one year’s membership.
