Is it legal to give flight instruction in my own airplane without 100 hour inspection if doing it for no charge?

. no person may give flight instruction for hire in an aircraft which that person provides, unless within the preceding 100 hours of time in service the aircraft has received an annual or 100-hour inspection and been approved for return to service in accordance with part 43 of this chapter or has received an inspection for the issuance of an airworthiness certificate in accordance with part 21 of this chapter.

What if I want to give instruction to a friend or family and they are not paying me to do it? Would I be exempt from having to do a 100 hour inspection?

$\begingroup$ "which that person provides" does that means that if the student provides the plane then it will be exempt from the 100 hour inspection as well? $\endgroup$

$\begingroup$ Your best bet is to get a legal interpretation from the FAA. The intent is to ensure the aircraft is in an airworthy state when the student pilot doesn't know what to look at to verify its condition. $\endgroup$

$\begingroup$ Are they paying for the aircraft? Or are you footing that entire bill too? Fuel is expensive, it would be hard to convince an FAA inspector you are giving out free pilots licenses to friends. $\endgroup$

$\begingroup$ @RonBeyer I think who is paying for the plane is a different question, but perhaps a follow-up to this one. The scenario I am thinking of is: hypothetically I own an airplane for my private use. I am a CFI and a friend and I are flying to Vegas for the weekend. So we are going somewhere incidentally together and could split expenses, can I give him loggable flight instruction on the trip to Vegas without having to have a 100-hour inspection? So, I've provided the plane, we are going somewhere together that we both want to go, and I want to let him fly as a student pilot on the journey. $\endgroup$

4 Answers 4

I agree with acpilot that if you're merely renting the plane to this pilot then no 100hr is required. Rentals are not "for hire" operations.

I do that with a Cherokee that I rent out. I don’t provide the CFI and I do not fly it for others. Several students have taken their practical tests in the plane and I made sure they could explain the FAR to the DPE and they had no problems.

As several commenters have stated, it gets tricky when you own the plane and provide instruction. The FAA considers lots of things as compensation that you and I would not. Goodwill, logging flight time, paying for gas, or even paying for lunch or a beer.

I found a clarification letter from the FAA at Aviation Banter. http://www.aviationbanter.com/showthread.php?t=11563&page=2

May 3, 1984 Mr. Perry Rackers Jefferson City Flying Service

Dear Mr. Rackers This is in reply to your request of May 1, 1984, that we render an opinion regarding the applicability of the 100-hour inspections requirement of Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations to rental aircraft. Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations provides that, except as noted in Section 91.169(c), a person may not operate an aircraft carrying any person, other than a crewmember, for hire, and may not give flight instruction for hire in an aircraft which that person provides unless, within the previous 100 hours of time in service, the aircraft has received either an annual or a 100-hour inspection. If a person merely leases or rents an aircraft to another person and does not provide the pilot, that aircraft is not required by Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations to have a 100-hour i nspection. As noted above, the 100-hour inspection is required only when the aircraft is carrying a person for hire, or when a person is providing flight instruction for hire, in their own aircraft. If there are any questions, please advise us.

Sincerely, /s/ Joseph T. Brennan Associate Regional Counsel

One correction to acpilot about the 100 hours. Once you start renting for hire, you need to do an inspection every 100 hours. The clock doesn’t restart every time you do the inspection or annual. You are allowed a little leeway to ferry the plane to the inspector, but you don’t reset the clock. The 100-hour limitation may be exceeded by not more than 10 hours while en route to reach a place where the inspection can be done. The excess time used to reach a place where the inspection can be done must be included in computing the next 100 hours of time in service.