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Angel Flight question???

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El Guapo

Mile high club member
Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Posts
54
During the recent Katrina Hurricane I signed up with Angel Flight as a Volunteer because I felt like helping and well I was off for a month and had nothing to do.

What I didn't know is that the pilots have to pay for all their own fuel, rentals, food and equipment. This is a great way to help people out that don't have enough funds to get around on their own and have medical problems. I would love to help, but I myself don't make enough money to go out and rent an airplane, pay for gas and pay for my own food while out on the road.

Does anyone know if you file the above mentioned as a donation on one's behalf for tax purposes would I get 100% of what I spent on these flights and expenses in return on my taxes, or would I receive just a portion of it in return.

I've read all their literature but haven't run across anything that mentions this. Thanks in advance!
 
El Guapo said:
Does anyone know if you file the above mentioned as a donation on one's behalf for tax purposes would I get 100% of what I spent on these flights and expenses in return on my taxes, or would I receive just a portion of it in return.
It works the same as any tax deduction, it simply reduces the amount of your taxable income. Just like when you throw 3,000 in an IRA.

El Guapo said:
I've read all their literature but haven't run across anything that mentions this. Thanks in advance!
That's because they are assuming that most people that fly planes know what a tax deduction is and how it effects them.
 
My understanding, as we were briefed on our orientation conference call, is that you can write off all the aircraft expenses as a charitable donation. Nobody mentioned food or lodging though....
 
You may list the direct costs of the flight as a charitable deduction. That one area where the renter pilot has a small "advantage."

If you're looking for the FAA's position on it:

==============================
Air Transportation Operations Inspectors Handbook
FAA Order 8400.10, Vol. 4, Chap. 5, Sect. 1, Para 1345

1345. FAA POLICY REGARDING "COMPENSATION OR HIRE" CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHARITABLE FLIGHTS OR LIFE FLIGHTS. Various organizations and pilots are conducting flights that are characterized as "volunteer," "charity," or "humanitarian." These flights are referred to by numerous generic names, including "lifeline flights," "life flights," "mercy flights," and "angel flights." These types of flights will be referred to as "life flights" in this section.

A. Purposes for Life Flights. The types of organizations and pilots involved with or conducting life flights vary greatly. The most common purpose of life flights is to transport ill or injured persons who cannot financially afford commercial transport to appropriate medical treatment facilities, or to transport blood or human organs. Other "compassionate flights" include transporting a child to visit with a dying relative, or transporting a dying patient to return to the city of the patient's birth.

B. FAA Policy. The FAA's policy supports "truly humanitarian efforts" to provide life flights to needy persons (including "compassionate flights"). This also includes flights involving the transfer of blood and human organs. Since Congress has specifically provided for the tax deductibility of some costs of charitable acts, the FAA will not treat charitable deductions of such costs, standing alone, as constituting "compensation or hire" for the purpose of enforcement of FAR § 61.118 or FAR Part 135. Inspectors should not treat the tax deductibility of costs as constituting "compensation or hire" when the flights are conducted for humanitarian purposes.
==============================
 
Vector4fun said:
My understanding, as we were briefed on our orientation conference call, is that you can write off all the aircraft expenses as a charitable donation. Nobody mentioned food or lodging though....

You can't write off all aircraft expenses. You can only include the direct operating costs such as rental fees, ramp/landing fees, fuel, and oil. The rest is donation. Our wing leader suggested talking to an accountant before doing anything.
 
I guess I wasn't very clear. In my briefing, we were told we could deduct all our direct expenses for the trip. Fuel, oil, fees, and a reasonable, verifiable figure for the hourly cost of a personal aircraft. (engine/prop/maint reserve) It was suggested we go to AOPA's website, I believe, and look up average hourly cost of different model aircraft to operate as a reasonable basis for the IRS. BTW, I recall they said we could deduct the whole flight, to/from home base, not just the leg with a patient. Indirect expenses such as hangar and insurance are not deductable so far as I know.
 
Heilige Schostakovitch!!!!

So - is it true, that -

with Angel Flight, one can actually make less money than flying for a regional?????

Oh my Goodness...I'm going to turn around and Bite My Brain...
 
Tyro said:
So - is it true, that -

with Angel Flight, one can actually make less money than flying for a regional?????

Oh my Goodness...I'm going to turn around and Bite My Brain...
Yea...hard to believe, aint it? :D

I have been biting my brain for the last 13 years and I'm still hungry...get in line! :D What a crazy bizness were in!
 
Tyro said:
with Angel Flight, one can actually make less money than flying for a regional?????
I guess so, if your purpose for giving to charity is to make money. You can make even less flying your family to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving in your 172.
 
Is that PFT?
Seriously, I don't know where you can rent a 421, because the "frequent flyers" like to travel in style and comfort. Funny how someone with a serious illness who can't afford a bus ticket will turn up their nose at a 172.

I had a family of stinky white trash show up all adorned in their finest Nascar wear with mullets a-flowin' and they actually all had their own headsets. Pops can't afford to take the Greyhound a couple hundred miles, but they can all afford headsets.

Had one get all huffy with me because he couldn't fit golf clubs in the chickenhawk.

Another one had to tell me about a million times how much smaller and noisier it was than the Duke she flew on the preceding leg.

Only had one person actually seem grateful for the lift, but he flew in "The War." Corsairs, I think, and owned an airplane for many years, but hadn't flown since the 70s. I let him fly for a while. I'm pretty sure it was probably the last time he held the controls.
 

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