2.2 Private Pilot Privileges and Limitations

Section 61.113 is the private-pilot privilege rule. The default is a prohibition. The rest of the section is a closed list of exceptions. If a proposed flight is not in that list, a private pilot may not take money — or anything else that counts as compensation — for acting as PIC.

The default prohibition — 61.113(a)

Except as provided in paragraphs (b) through (h), a private pilot may not:

• Act as PIC of an aircraft that is carrying passengers or property for compensation or hire, or
• For compensation or hire, act as PIC of an aircraft.

Those are two different sentences. Flying paying cargo with no passengers is still prohibited. Flying an empty airplane because someone is paying you to reposition it is still prohibited. “I am not a commercial pilot, but I am only charging fuel” does not create a new exception.

Compensation is broader than a W-2 paycheck. FAA legal interpretations treat a free hour of dual, a waived rental, a hotel room, and goodwill that is clearly bargained for as compensation when they are given in return for acting as PIC. The exam will usually use cash, because cash is clean. In the airplane, treat any quid-pro-quo the same way.

Holding out is how a legal expense-share becomes an illegal charter. Posting “anyone need a ride to the game, $80” on social media is offering transportation to the public. That is not a shared private flight. It is the fact pattern 61.113(a) exists to stop.

Pro-rata share — 61.113(c)

A private pilot may not pay less than the pro-rata share of the operating expenses of a flight with passengers, provided the expenses involve only fuel, oil, airport expenditures, or rental fees.

Four categories. Not five. Hangar rent for the month, annual-inspection reserves, insurance premiums, “engine wear,” and the pilot’s time are not on the list. Split the allowed costs by the number of occupants, including the pilot. If four people fly and the allowed bill is $240, the private PIC must pay at least $60. Paying $20 because “I am providing the flying” is compensation to the PIC.

Common purpose still matters even though the regulation text lists expenses rather than motives. If the passengers want to go to a wedding and the pilot does not, the pilot is providing transportation. If everyone — including the PIC — is going to the same event and each person pays an equal share of fuel, oil, airport fees, and the rental, 61.113(c) is the paragraph that fits.

A private PIC who pays the entire bill and refuses money is not violating 61.113(c). The regulation forbids paying less than a pro-rata share; it does not forbid paying more. The trap is the other direction: letting passengers cover the whole rental so the pilot “flies for free.”

Business use — 61.113(b)

A private pilot may, for compensation or hire, act as PIC in connection with a business or employment if both are true:

1. The flight is only incidental to that business or employment, and
2. The aircraft does not carry passengers or property for compensation or hire.

Incidental means the job is something else and the airplane is how the pilot got there. A surveyor employed to measure a site, flying alone to that site, may be paid the ordinary salary for surveying. A realtor whose product is showing houses may not load clients and call the flight “incidental” to real estate. The clients are passengers carried for the business that pays the pilot.

Property for hire is the same idea with cargo. Flying the company’s own tools to a job the pilot will perform can fit (b). Flying a customer’s freight because the customer paid for movement of the freight does not.

Named exceptions that are not a business model

Charitable, nonprofit, or community event flights — 61.113(d) and 91.146. The private pilot may act as PIC only if the sponsor and the pilot comply with 91.146. That rule is not “charity makes 61.113 go away.” Among other limits, the flight must be day VFR, nonstop, begin and end at the same airport, and stay within a 25-statute-mile radius. A private PIC must have at least 500 hours of flight time. The sponsor must notify the responsible Flight Standards office at least seven days before the event. Passenger payments may reimburse only a pro-rata cost of owning, operating, and maintaining the aircraft for that flight. A private pilot with 180 hours who wants to “help the fundraiser” is not eligible.

Search and location — 61.113(e). The private pilot may be reimbursed for aircraft operating expenses directly related to search and location operations if those expenses are only fuel, oil, airport expenditures, or rental fees, and the operation is sanctioned and under the direction and control of a local, State, or Federal agency or an organization that conducts search and location operations. A self-launched “I will go look and they can pay me later” flight is not (e).

Aircraft salesman — 61.113(f). A private pilot who is an aircraft salesman and who has at least 200 hours of logged flight time may demonstrate an aircraft in flight to a prospective buyer. The hours are logged flight time, not “about 200 including simulator.” The flight is a demonstration to a buyer, not a sightseeing hop that happens to mention that the airplane is for sale.

Glider or unpowered-ultralight tow — 61.113(g). A private pilot who meets 61.69 may act as PIC of an aircraft towing a glider or unpowered ultralight vehicle. 61.69 is its own qualification stack (category PIC time, towing training, and recent towing experience). Passing PAR does not automatically include a tow privilege.

Light-sport production flight test — 61.113(h). This is a narrow production-test exception for a powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft intended for light-sport certification under 21.190, and only if the private PIC has at least 100 hours PIC in that category and class and knows the special-flight-permit process. It is not a sport-pilot or MOSAIC chapter, and it is not permission to fly light-sport aircraft for hire. If a PAR question mentions it, treat it as a listed exception with those aircraft and hour limits — then move on.

BasicMed lives in 61.113(i). It changes the medical qualification used to exercise private privileges; it does not add a new way to get paid. A BasicMed private pilot is still inside (a) through (h).

Passengers versus no passengers; acting as PIC versus logging PIC

Privileges and limitations attach to acting as PIC, not to writing “PIC” in a logbook.

• Acting as PIC means you are the person with final authority and responsibility for the operation (see 91.3). To do that with a private certificate you need the certificate, the rating, a current flight review under 61.56, a valid medical or BasicMed, and — if anyone is carried who is not a required crewmember — 61.57 passenger-carrying recency (three takeoffs and landings in the preceding 90 days in the same category, class, and type if a type rating is required; full-stop at night; full-stop in a tailwheel).
• Logging PIC under 61.51(e) is a recordkeeping rule. A rated private pilot who is the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which that pilot is rated may log PIC. That entry can be legal even on a day the same pilot is not legal to carry passengers — for example, after a 61.57 lapse. The logbook line does not restore passenger privileges.

A private pilot who is not passenger-current may still fly solo, or fly with a CFI who is the acting PIC, and may still log PIC as sole manipulator when rated. What that pilot may not do is put a friend in the right seat and call the friend “safety pilot” unless the operation actually requires a safety pilot (simulated instrument flight under 91.109) and the roles are honest. A passenger who is not performing a required duty is a passenger. 61.57 then applies.

Currency without passengers is thinner: 61.56 flight review (or an exception such as a practical test) every 24 calendar months, plus medical or BasicMed, plus the 61.113 operating rules. Night currency, tailwheel full-stop landings, and 90-day landings are passenger-carrying rules, not “may I start the engine” rules.

The exam loves the first two rows. If the numbers are equal shares of the four allowed costs and everyone is going to the same place, it is (c). If the PIC’s share drops to zero, or the PIC advertised a ride to the public, it is (a).