Two tricky questions that relate to flying with boatpix

[helopilot2be]

Okay so I'm trying to figure out how Boatpix gets around these two issues.

 

2. Ive also heard they do time building taking boat photos with non commercial private students. How is this possible if the flight is being used as a commercial flight to sell photos, and the student is getting compensation by getting a discounted rate.

Here is what I think and why I think it is legal. A private pilot is allowed to share expenses with the passenger(s) as long as the pilot pays his pro rata share and no less. However a passenger is not required to pay anything. You and I could go flying and I could pay for the whole flight. Even if I let you fly for a period of time. So if it is during the time building stage where they have a rated pilot building time in a company owned helo the pilot is not required to pay anything. I know that the FAA sees this as Quid Pro Quo so let me finish. Since any company can set whatever price they want to rent/use an aircraft it is obvious that the $100/hr is the cost that Boatpix has settled on and since this is above the pro rata share for the published hourly fixed operating costs for an R-22(Robinson Website says $115.79 $115.79 divided by two is ~$57.90) plus 52.10 for company supervision. The FAA can't well doesn't consider it a discounted rate.

Just a theory. They are too widely known for the FAA not to have noticed and "looked" at.

Chris

[gary t]

SOOOO, IF i was flying with a student, he snapped off a quick photo of his buddy's business for the fun of it, THEN went and sold his photo to his buddy. it is not commercial work, its flight instruction. anyway, according to the site, they are both commercial pilots.

 

http://www.helicopteracademy.com/

Bingo

[mechanic]

Since any company can set whatever price they want to rent/use an aircraft it is obvious that the $100/hr is the cost that Boatpix has settled on and since this is above the pro rata share for the published hourly fixed operating costs for an R-22(Robinson Website says $115.79 $115.79 divided by two is ~$57.90) plus 52.10 for company supervision.

 

I am not sure the 100 bucks an hour still applies?

 

 

 

Helicopter Academy

 

Because we are an official training center for BOATPIX.COM, qualified pilots and Helicopter Academy graduates have the chance to build time at only $150 per flight hour. You pay for the avgas, oil and landing fees of about $50 per hour.

 

So that makes it 200 an hour.. Still 200 hour is pretty cheap compared to most programs.

 

 

 

dated 2007 "Auto Pilot Mag" article on BoatPix overview how it works.

[mechanic]

On another note, I have seen some bad press about Boat Pix on Offshore.com.

 

Link to Offshore.com 1

Link to Offshore.com 2

[Justin DBC]

On another note, I have seen some bad press about Boat Pix on Offshore.com.

 

Link to Offshore.com 1

Link to Offshore.com 2

 

 

That sounds pretty messed up. If it's true, I wonder if it's one location or if it's throughout the company?

 

J-

[lastmanjackson]

It's Tom from BOATPIX. If anyone has any questions they can call me at 561-346-2816. I had two CFI's flying this weekend near Titusville/Merritt Island and some people questioned whether they can both log the time so the questions about non-commercial pilots doesn't apply as we are talking two cfi's. We offer $150 an hour timebuilding where you are a rated pilot and flying with a cfi. Suppose that you take off from Miami, Ft Lauderdale, West Palm, Pensacola or Jacksonville and I send you to Key West for a photoshoot. Suppose that every hour you come across one boat and the private pilot photographs the boat while the CFI flies. Okay, so this takes about 20 seconds. The rest of the time the private pilot is flying the helicopter and logging it as PIC while the instructor is logging dual given. So in this case, the private logs three hours and the helicopter flies three hours and three minutes and there is no harm. The website for this is www.r22.us and we advertise on all websites. I regret that people say: "That whole thing just seemed sketchy to me. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is." when they don't even know anything about this.

 

Can you tell me who signs the tech log on these flights as PIC?

Thanks