Can I rent my friend's plane?

stesta5074

stesta5074

Well-Known Member
My friend has a Cessna 172 that I think he'd let me fly if I paid the costs, plus a little extra per hour. What restrictions are there on this if any? I'm looking for a reference in the FAR's and I'll keep looking, just thought I should ask too.

Thank you,
stesta
 
There is no FAR that prohibits renting your friend's airplane. There aren't even any FARs that deal with FBO rentals.

There may be insurance issues however. Some insurers may treat this as commercial use of the airplane ("commercial" in insurance terrms, not FAA terms). Others allow rentals to a limited number of named people (that does not necessaril mean you are covered).
 
You won't find any restrictions on it the FAR's. There are none. What you want to be concerned with is the insurance company. The concepts to look for are being named insured and whether or not there is a waiver of subrogation. In nutshell you want the insurance company to cover any accident or incident that takes place while you're flying the plane. And then you don't want the insurance company to be able to sue you to reclaim any money they had to pay out as a result of your accident/incident.
 
Killtron2000 said:
I thought you had to have 100 hour inspections on rental planes.
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No, you don't. If you rent your plane to someone and provide them with flight instruction, then you need 100 hour inspections. If you rent your plane to someone and there is no flight instruction (or they bring their own CFI to the party), then no 100 hr is required.
 
Here's the good old FAA for ya.

To rent an aircraft and fly around, you do NOT need the 100hour. That only applies when you're getting dual. (Beware the newer 172's have some AD's so those will have to be taken care of)

However, there was a guy who was giving rides in his airplane at a fair for a modest $8. He crashed, people got involved, and the FAA actually dinged him for not having the 100 hour.
 
Yes you can but you need to make sure you cover the insurance problem. Between my different family members we have 3 airplanes. But to be covered fully we all have to be on each others insurance policies as pilots. This is because renters insurance only covers damage caused by error on the renters part(you). It is not covered in any other instance. To be fully covered either your friend needs a commercial policy on his airplane or he needs to put you on his policy. If you have less hours than him this will mean a increase in insurance policy. Now if you have more hours than him this could work out to his advantage. Another thing to seriously consider is what happens if you crash his airplane. I'm talking outside of insurance factors. How will this affect your friendship? Will you compensate him for loss of use of his airplane till a replacement is in hand? What happens if you run the engine too hot and blow a valve or two or worse? Are you prepared to pay a large maintenance bill due to poor operation on your part? These are all the kind of things you need to think about. And dont think it wont happen to you. I was flying my great uncles Cherokee 235 during summer on the way home from new york and blew a oil line which resulted in around a 400 dollar repair bill which I paid since I was flying the airplane. I could have argued that it could of been him that caused it sometime during the past xxx number of hours but I was flying when it happened so I paid the bill. You need to consider all these variables before you start taking your buddies plane for pleasure flights.
 
PGT said:
However, there was a guy who was giving rides in his airplane at a fair for a modest $8. He crashed, people got involved, and the FAA actually dinged him for not having the 100 hour.
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Well, if he was instructing in his airplane then he would need the 100 hour no matter what the price...
 
stesta5074 said:
My friend has a Cessna 172 that I think he'd let me fly if I paid the costs, plus a little extra per hour.
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As long as his insurance company (or yours) is cool, pay him whatever you both think is fair.

Shouldn't be a big deal at all, nothing FAA-related to worry about.
 
Assuming the insurance company doesn't care an FBO could set aside planes that are for rental only so no flight instruction and not do hundred hour inspections on them?
 
Killtron2000 said:
Assuming the insurance company doesn't care an FBO could set aside planes that are for rental only so no flight instruction and not do hundred hour inspections on them?
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A local one here has rental-only planes. Not sure if it is insurance, I think the owners just don't want students banging up their new $500,000 Skylanes.
 
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