Three friends, one soft strip and a lapsed 90-day window
On Saturday morning you plan to fly three friends from Hilversum (EHHV), a 660 m grass strip, to Antwerp (EBAW) in the club's Cessna 172. Your PPL(A) with SEP rating and Class 2 medical are valid, the airworthiness review certificate expires in three weeks, and the aircraft is insured for four occupants. You last flew 96 days ago, when you logged three circuits with an instructor in this aircraft. The passengers weigh 68, 75 and 82 kg, you weigh 78 kg, baggage is 15 kg, and the tanks contain 95 litres of the 201 litres usable. In the clubhouse one passenger says he will pay the whole rental 'since you are doing us the favour'. The strip is soft after overnight rain and the surface wind is 250/15 kt across the 240 degree strip. You have not entered controlled airspace since your skill test, and Antwerp CTR is Class C.
1. May you carry the three friends on this flight? If not, state exactly what is missing and how it is restored.
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No - not today. Carrying passengers requires three take-offs and landings as sole manipulator of the controls, in the same class or type, within the preceding 90 days. You last flew 96 days ago and logged the three circuits then, so the window closed six days ago.
- The flight itself is not illegal: you may fly solo, and a valid SEP rating does not cure this - currency and rating validity are separate requirements.
- To restore the privilege, complete three take-offs and landings in the C172. For aeroplanes a touch-and-go counts; they need not be full-stop landings.
- Do it before the trip, not on the way: the landings must fall inside the 90 days preceding the flight that carries passengers.
- Note the trap: the instructor-supervised circuits 96 days ago felt recent and were logged properly, which is exactly why the rule is written as a fixed calendar test rather than 'recent experience'.
2. The passenger offers to pay the entire rental. Assess this against the privileges of a PPL and against the insurance position.
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Decline it. A private pilot may share the direct costs of a flight, but only if the costs are shared by all occupants including the pilot, and no profit is made. One passenger paying 100 % turns the flight into a commercial operation, which lies outside PPL privileges.
- Insurance is written for private, non-commercial use with a specified maximum number of occupants; a paying passenger can give the insurer grounds to refuse a claim, leaving you personally liable for third-party damage and injury.
- A defensible arrangement is a pro-rata split: four occupants, one quarter each, with you paying your own quarter from your own money.
- Direct costs are fuel, landing, parking and similar; your time and your licence are not billable.
- There is a human-factors dimension too: the offer creates a sense of obligation, and obligation is the classic precursor to accepting a soft 660 m strip and a 15 kt crosswind on the same flight.
3. Ignoring the currency issue, what must you verify in the aircraft documents and loading before departure, and what could still stop the flight?
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Work through these systematically:
- Airworthiness review certificate: valid for another three weeks, so it does not stop today's flight, but it will lapse mid-season - book the review now.
- Insurance: must cover passenger liability for four occupants and the geographical area flown; a policy limited to the home country would not cover Antwerp.
- Mass and balance: 78 + 68 + 75 + 82 = 303 kg of occupants, plus 15 kg baggage = 318 kg, plus 95 l of fuel at about 0.72 kg/l = 68 kg, giving roughly 386 kg of payload. On a basic empty mass near 640 kg that is about 1,026 kg against a 1,043 kg MTOM - legal but with only about 17 kg of margin, so the actual C of G must be computed, not assumed.
- Technical log: no unresolved defects, and the maintenance programme signed up to date.
- Performance: soft, wet grass on a 660 m strip with a crosswind is a take-off and landing distance problem, not a paperwork problem - and a private flight does not need a 100-hour check, so do not invent one as a reason to cancel; use the real reasons.