Cost sharing when hiring from a flying school

Yes, you can hire an aircraft from a flying school or ATO and share the costs with passengers. The hire charge is an aircraft rental fee, which counts as a direct cost up to the current market rate, but the school's terms must allow it and no pilot on board can be paid to fly.

The usual limits apply too: six people at most including you, no passenger paying more than an equal share, and a signed declaration for each passenger before the flight. This guide covers the points that come up when the aircraft belongs to a school, and the one mix-up to avoid: treating cost sharing and introductory flights as the same thing.

The hire charge is a rental fee

The four direct costs are "(a) fuel; (b) oil; (c) airfield charges; and (d) aircraft rental fees at current market rate" (UK Reg (EU) 965/2012 Art. 2(12); the ANO 2016 Sch. 1 definition has the same words). A school's hire charge is a rental fee, so it can go into the cost split.

The ceiling is the market rate, which GM1 NCO.GEN.102(c)(b) defines as "the average rental price of the same type of aircraft in the same geographic area on the particular date of the flight" (CAP 1590 (guidance), para 37, says the same).

If the school's solo hire rate is in line with what others nearby charge for the same type, use it. If it's higher, base the passengers' shares on the market figure and pay the excess yourself. Our aircraft cost pages are a starting point for typical rates, but the test is local prices on the date of the flight.

Most schools hire wet, so fuel is already in the rate. Share the hire charge plus any airfield charges, and don't add fuel on top. The cost sharing calculator does the split.

Anything that isn't one of the four direct costs is yours: NCO.GEN.102(b) says "All costs other than direct costs must be paid by the pilot with no contribution from the passengers." That includes any membership or account fee the school charges you to hire. See what counts as a direct cost.

Check the school's terms

The law allows cost sharing in a hired aircraft, but the school decides whether, and on what terms, it will hire to you. Before you arrange a flight, check:

• Whether solo hire with passengers is allowed on the aircraft you want, and whether there are any conditions such as a checkout or experience requirement.
• Whether the school permits cost sharing. Some hire terms may say something specific about it.
• The insurance. CAP 1590 (guidance), para 14, says "It is the pilot's responsibility to ensure the flight is insured for cost sharing flights with passengers". Ask the school to confirm its policy covers cost-sharing flights.

The school's terms apply on top of the law. If they say no, the answer is no for that aircraft.

The flight is yours, not the school's

NCO.GEN.102(d) says "The flight must be operated by a private individual." CAP 1590 explains that the pilot "must be acting as a private individual, i.e. not an organisation or company etc.", and the CAA's web page adds that cost sharing flights "cannot form part of a business activity through an organisation."

So the arrangement with your passengers is yours. The school hires you an aircraft; it shouldn't be finding your passengers or taking their money for the flight.

Instructors can't be the paid pilot

NCO.GEN.102(e) says: "No person acting as a pilot is employed as a pilot or acting under a contract for the provision of services as a pilot for the flight." ANO 2016 art. 13(2)(e) is worded the same way for non-Part-21 aircraft.

That has two practical consequences at a school:

• A paid instructor can't fly a cost-shared flight. If the school provides an instructor to fly your friends, and that instructor is employed or contracted as a pilot for the flight, it isn't cost sharing. A paid pilot carrying contributing passengers is the territory of commercial air transport, which needs an AOC. See cost sharing vs charter.
• Don't add contributing passengers to a lesson. On a dual lesson, the instructor is acting as a pilot and being paid for it, so the flight can't meet condition (e). Passengers shouldn't contribute to a lesson.

The rule is about the person acting as pilot "for the flight". The sources don't deal with an instructor who hires an aircraft privately on their own time and isn't being paid for that flight. If that's your situation, make sure the flight is genuinely private and nothing about it is arranged or paid through the school as instructing work.

Introductory flights are a different derogation

Schools often sell trial lessons or introductory flights. They aren't cost-shared flights, and the two shouldn't be mixed up.

Cost sharing is UK Reg (EU) 965/2012 Art. 6(4a)(a): "cost-shared flights by private individuals, where the conditions of NCO.GEN.102 are satisfied". Introductory flights are covered by a separate paragraph, Art. 6(4a)(c), which applies to:

introductory flights, parachute dropping, sailplane towing or aerobatic flights performed either by a training organisation having its principal place of business in the United Kingdom and referred to in Article 10a of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, or by an organisation created with the aim of promoting aerial sport or leisure aviation, on the condition that the aircraft is operated by the organisation on the basis of ownership or dry lease, that the flight does not generate profits distributed outside of the organisation, and that whenever non-members of the organisation are involved, such flights represent only a marginal activity of the organisation.

Art. 2(9) defines an introductory flight as "any operation against remuneration or other valuable consideration consisting of an air tour of short duration for the purpose of attracting new trainees or new members", performed by a training organisation or an aerial sport or leisure organisation.

The differences that matter:

As a private pilot, you can't offer "trial flights" or "experience flights" under the cost-sharing rules. Your passengers can only share the direct costs of a private flight that you operate. If someone wants a trial lesson, point them at the school.

Before you fly

• Confirm the school will hire to you with passengers and allows cost sharing.
• Get confirmation that its insurance covers cost-sharing flights.
• Use the hire charge as the rental, capped at the local market rate for the type.
• Make sure no one acting as a pilot is employed or contracted as a pilot for the flight.
• Keep cost sharing separate from lessons and trial flights.
• Get each passenger's signed declaration before the flight and keep it for six months. Split My Flight collects declarations online and keeps them with a compliance document for each flight.

See passenger declarations and records for what the record must contain.