Advice for Contract Flying

[JFReservist]

Does anyone have any information or experience with contract flying? I have an offer to fly for a non-flying private owner who leases his jet out to others. I would be an FO, paid a daily rate for each trip that I desire to take (can take as few or as many as I want, depending mainly on my availability). The pay is good, but I have two concerns -
- Liability - since I am not a company employee, am I liable for any damage that might occur if I am in the seat regardless of who's on the controls (ie, a hard landing from the pilot that blows tires, and I didn't call a go-around)

- Legal liability - I have no say as to who I may be flying. I have flown 121 and military, and I have never had to worry about contraband or being impounded by a foreign nation's customs. Not that I have heard anything shady about my future employer – in-fact from the names of some of his clients, I feel comfortable. But you never know. I have heard horror stories from other pilots about customs and their counterparts overseas.

There are other issues, taxes and getting paid promptly for services rendered, etc. But the main issue I have is covering my arse in a legal sense. I am not worried about the flying or the jet or really even the other crew members. I haven’t done any paperwork with the owner yet and I want to go into this with a bit of knowledge. Thanks for any tips.

 

[heywatchthis]

I have only done a little bit of contract flying. The biggest problem is getting paid. I have never gotton stiffed, but gosh you have to keep calling and calling.

Liability. You are a "Contract Pilot" you need to fly with a signed contract. No contract no fly. Cover issues of pay, max flying per day, max duty hours, and of course require that they add you to there insurance liability. Don't ever take a trip unless you get the insurance copy with you on the rider. It doesn't cost them anything to add you.

Also check out Avcrew.com for info on guys doing it now. See how they do it.

 

[falconpilot]

I flew contract for almost a year...I charged daily rate plus milage... As an FO I almost positive that cannot hold you liable.. The owners aircraft insurance will cover you, but you will have to fill out their insurance form and meet their "open pilot" requirements. I never had a problem getting paid. I would submit my invoice as soon as I got back from the trip, or sometimes even before I left. If I knew that they were going to cover expenses and things of that nature.. If you except a trip and then they cancel... I still charged a daily rate. Plan on 25% of every dollar to go towards taxes... Make your daily rate competive.. Recurrent training is very expensive, especially if you are going to have to pay for it yourself. Good Luck

 

[Spooky 2]

Nbaa

I don't do any contract flying myself, but occiasionally we will use a "per-diem" pilot. The IRS has some issues with how this is handled and I believe that the NBAA recently had an article about tax implications for this type of servce. Might want to do a little research over their and for that matter on this web site as well as I seem to recall seeing something here as well. Our payroll dept.takes care of this, so I have not been personally involved in the details.

Good luck!