Legal Advice

[BrannonCarroll]

I earned my CFI, bought an airplane, and started instructing. I was told by the AP Manager that I had to stop instructing. He said I had to have a business license and commercial insurance. I got the business license and the insurance. I was then told the airport commission had to approve it.

Has anyone ever heard of this? I am not wanting to run a flight school. Just freelance instruct to build hours for an airline job.

Can someone tell you that you can't instruct at a public airport?

There are planes that fly in from all over, practice landings, practice approaches, etc.....are they told they can't instruct at this airport?

Any advice???????????

 

[Lindy]

Unfortunately, this is the norm....

An Airport Comission (or governing board) has authority to authorize such activities. Liken it to a small city/town with rules and regulations and statutes.

What you need to know:

1. Are there others on the field doing the same type of business? Even though you are "just wanting to build time" it is still technically a business and must be treated as such. If there are others providing the same service, then you have the argument of "past practices" on your side.

2. Do you know who is on the comission?

3. Do you have a copy of the airport comission charter? It is a governmental entity, as such, they should have some type of charter/by-laws/etc. I would definitely obtain a copy and see what their pervue explicitly provides.

4. Will they require you to attend any upcoming meetings to discuss your business?

This is just a place to start.

Basically, they want to make sure that you aren't doing anything that would be illegal/improper and reflect poorly upon their airport.

 

[Timebuilder]

That's good advice.

In addition, the local airport of almost any municipality is a hotbed of resident complaints and knee jerk regulation.

If you are not an AOPA member, join. Ask for their advice on this, since they spend time talking with pilots about local airport issues every day. You may even find that your airport has an AOPA volunteer who is familiar with local airport issues.

Unless you meet and instruct students at the airport, and therefore do indeed operate a business there, you may have no additional problems.

Arriving at an airport in order to access the federal airspce system may be beyond the reach of local bureaucrats, but you need to do the research necessary in order to determine if this is the case.

 

[Ty Webb]

I'm not sure that he is "operating a business". It sounds to me like he is providing a service, much like a business consultant. He doesn;t maintain an office at the airport, or a phone line there, or use it as his primary place of business. I think he could argue that he is a consultant who provides instruction at the place of the customer's choosing.

Of course, it would be necessary to determine what the history of other CFI's has been at that airport . . . and I would strive to maintain good relations with the local authorities.

Additionally, since the airport likely gets federal funds, it seems unlikely that they would be able to specifically prevent flight instruction from being conducted there. Sounds like AOPA would definitely be a place to get some good info.

 

[Jeff Helgeson]

Check with the AOPA

You should give the AOPA a call and ask them.

Also I would suggest getting the AOPA legal services. It is very economical and worth every penny.

Good Luck,

Jeff

CFI - 12 years

 

[AvJunke]

You have to have an ATCO ticket to provide the services you are providing. If I remember correctly from Aviation Law class back in the day the laymans stipulation is that w/o an Air Taxi Commercial Operator Certificate you can either provide instruction or the aircraft, but not both. Of course I skipped that class more than once. Good luck.

 

[EAP]

No, an Air Taxi (Air Carrier) Part 135 Operator's Permit is entirely different than a part 61 flight instruction operation. In fact, you can even provide sight seeing flights to non student passengers within 25nm of the airport under VFR without an Air Taxi (Air Carrier) Certificate as long as you comply with the FAR's governing that operation.

Go to AOPA, they'll give you the straight scoop.

 

[AvJunke]

That does not contradict anything I previously stated. I concur that one could do the sightseeing gig. In that scenario he is not providing both instruction and an aircraft. I remember it being that AS A INSTRUCTOR, you had to have a commercial ticket to provide both the instruction and the equipment.
These guys are pointing you in the right direction, AOPA is the authority to give you the credible legal explanation of what is kosher. I'm a little curious myself now, when you do a little research let me know what they tell you. Tailwinds.