When I heard about Flytenow, as I private pilot I could not believe they were attempting to set up a ride share market with <i>private</i> pilots. It is so blatantly condradictory to the spirit of the law and the common understanding of the rule among aviators, and I would certainly not want to be the lawyer trying to prove it met some obtuse letter of the law.<p>The bulletin board justification is also ridiculous; GA airports are out of the way and the average person does not make a trip out to see who might be flying where. How could they not have seen this coming?<p>Flytenow would have been much better served to encourage a more streamlined process for commercial pilots to ride share and navigate any applicable FARs be it part 135 or other. There is certainly an opportunity, not quite on Uber-terms, but there are plenty of pilots with commercial or near commercial doing crappy CFI (instruction) jobs and building time for an airline transport certificate. They will certainly welcome any new revenue or time-building scheme.<p>The relevant FAR regarding private pilots is here: <a href="http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&r=PART&n=14y2.0.1.1.2#se14.2.61_1113" rel="nofollow">http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&r=PART&n=14y2.0...</a>
I applaud these guys for attempting what is basically the Lyft/UberX model -- comply to the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law (i.e. Lyft's original "you're not paying your driver, you're making a donation"), though it's debatable if they're even trying to do that.<p>BUT! And there's a big but...<p>Lyft & Uber were/are disrupting a system that heavily regulated/legislated, some would argue unnecessarily, has false barriers to entry, is inefficient, and is essentially an oligopoly. And their entry is lowering prices, making the market more efficient, and making consumer super-happy.<p>I don't think private aviation is suffering the same ailment. If anything, the airlines are operating below cost because of heavy heavy competition. The FAA licenses private pilots not because they can or they want to charge fees, but because they need to make sure that they're not flying around killing themselves (and despite that regulation, they still are doing that).<p>So Flytenow's approach here feels more like they found a regulated market they feel like disrupting because they can vs. actually making an inefficient market more efficient and better for consumers.<p>In summary: Whereas I'm happy to take a ride with random stranger in their Lyft/UberX car, where I'll get a cheaper and generally better-than-Taxi experience, I'm not in any sort of rush to join a random private pilot who has not been commercially-certified by the FAA in his aircraft that isn't designed for commercial passenger transport.<p>Now - that all being said - that doesn't mean that Flytenow should die! There is indeed an opportunity here, and with the right safety checks and approvals, there could be a market for P2P flights. But this should be done with the FAA, not in spite of it.
From the Flytenow TOS:<p>"Flytenow receives an administrative fee of $30 (the “Bulletin Board Fee”) per Enthusiast for each flight."<p>Interjecting a third party into the agreement is the point at which it starts being a business and not a gentleman's agreement or whatever it should have been.<p>A bulletin board in an FOB doesn't count because the bulletin board, nor the provider of the board, doesn't make any money off someone putting up a 3x5 card or piece of paper. The bulletin board doesn't actually give a damn about whether anyone accepts the offer or the request, whether money changes hands or not, etc.<p>I could probably put up an electronic bulletin board for pilots and enthusiasts as long as I had no interest in the offers of, or requests for, flights. I could possibly even charge a yearly or monthly fee for it, as long as it was for access, not about the flights. (I'm guessing on that last bit - the FAA would probably give me squinty looks for a while until they were satisfied I wasn't charging for flights).<p>But Flytenow had to go putting a per-ride fee on things and that's the moment it because a business transaction.<p>Their TOS is here: <a href="https://flytenow.com/terms" rel="nofollow">https://flytenow.com/terms</a><p>---<p>Really and honestly, without ever having been involved, I'm thinking the existing system of informal agreements and bulletin boards, etc. is way preferable to dealing with Flytenow. They're adding a middleman where no middleman was really needed, except maybe a neighbor who knows a guy who has a plane.
This seems fairly straightforward, but I am not a lawyer.<p>The common carriage rule says a private pilot can't offer to fly people around for money. The exception to this rule is if the money is only defraying the cost of the flight.<p>The fact that Flytenow charges a fee for connecting pilot and passenger appears to put the system outside of the exception to the rule. The fee does not defray the cost of the flight.
Flytenow implies the FAA is responding to them, but if you read the letter, this response is actually to a request from one of their competitors, AirPooler.
I'm getting kind of tired of these startups who think they can bypass the rules by just holding their hands over their ears and shouting "LA LA LA THE RULES DO NOT APPLY TO ME LA LA LA."<p>The blog post goes into extensive detail about how their service doesn't involve soliciting rides for compensation and it falls on the expense sharing side of things and on and on. Then I visit their home page and I'm greeted by this:<p>"Go round trip from Boston to Martha's Vineyard for about $120 per person or from Palo Alto to Monterey Bay for about $100 per person."<p>Plain as day, that's advertising trips for money.<p>What really irks me in this case is that the requirements for carrying passengers for hire aren't all that tough to meet. You need a commercial pilot's license, a requirement that should be fairly obvious. It's not all <i>that</i> hard to get one. You need some more training and have to fly to higher standards and know more stuff, but it's not particularly tough. The equipment is also held to higher standards, which mostly comes down to getting it inspected more often. This is not like, say, Uber and New York City, where you have to spend a million bucks on a taxi medallion or they'll shut you down. You merely have to meet some fairly basic requirements before you carry passengers for hire to ensure a basic level of competence.<p>The law is not a computer program. You can't exploit a judge by saying, "Please repeat the following 64kB of data back to me: empty." If it looks like you're advertising services for hire and it acts like you're advertising services for hire, you're advertising services for hire.
The thing that isn't clear to me is whether the FAA has any kind of authority over Flytenow. Technically, doesn't their authority extend only to the pilots who use the service?
I find the whole "Regulators are bad!" attitude/narrative tiresome. Regulators are responsible for protecting the interests of the public. They might sometimes be slow to adapt to advances in technology and changes in the market, but I'd rather they erred on the side of caution.<p>If financial regulators had been a bit less accommodating towards "innovative" products and business models, we might all be a bit better off.
I would really like to read a legal memo from an administrative law attorney instead of this sort of amateur law enthusiast argument for a certain position. I am not at all familiar with the relevant law/regulations, but the style and content of the OP leaves me still not sure I got an education.
I wish them the best of luck, but I don't really buy their claim that a flight they are publicly listing and charging a fee for is private cost sharing.
We're finally getting the over the top push back that all those maybe legal startups kept asking for.<p>This is what happens when you keep poking someone(the regulators) with a stick. Eventually your credibility drops to near zero and everyone coming in behind you, with possibly much more reasonable ideas, will now be associated with your crap and pays the price.<p>Thanks Uber & Airbnb. Thanks a lot.