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Forgetting the legality of the matter for a moment: Inexperienced pilots plus small planes plus the pressure of an implicit promise to fly at a certain time is

Forgetting the legality of the matter for a moment: Inexperienced pilots plus small planes plus the pressure of an implicit promise to fly at a certain time is a bad mix. CPLs get extra training and experience that GAs don't that helps them say "I know you're paying lots of money and are very important and all that but we're not flying through that". My gut instinct on services like this is that somebody is going to die. The FAA is making an ass of themselves in the tech community with the drone nonsense right now, but these rules are written on tombstones.

belorn 12y ago
>> an implicit promise to fly at a certain time Is there such implicit promise? The information of the site seems to strongly imply that the pilot decide when and if a trip happens, and only if the trip actually happens will anyone be charged money. The FAQ even says that this is not a airline or charter service, and one is simply sharing a ride on a airplane and splitting the costs. If that feeling of basically hitchhiking is not instilled, then flytenow might want to consider making that part more prominent on the website.
yock 12y ago
The opposite situation might even be worse. Pilot-in-command says you're go, but you're not keen on the weather. Suddenly the PIC is super pissed that you're not sharing the cost of the ride anymore, and you have a lot of very bad options. Pay for a ride you aren't going to take, get in an airplane in circumstances you feel aren't safe, or piss off this individual who's going to bad mouth you to everyone he knows. It really seems like this could persuade a lot of people to make bad decisions.
- shapov 12y ago
  Is there a baseline that could be established to dictate what bad weather is? So that the decision is taken away from both the pilot and the passenger?
  - yock 12y ago
    If this baseline were so easily quantifiable, then there would be volumes written about it and the community would have settled on one long ago. The apparent risk is different for everyone, and weather is highly unpredictable.
maxcan 12y ago
> these rules are written on tombstones. I love the way you phrased that.

belorn 12y ago

>> an implicit promise to fly at a certain time Is there such implicit promise? The information of the site seems to strongly imply that the pilot decide when and if a trip happens, and only if the trip actually happens will anyone be charged money. The FAQ even says that this is not a airline or charter service, and one is simply sharing a ride on a airplane and splitting the costs. If that feeling of basically hitchhiking is not instilled, then flytenow might want to consider making that part more prominent on the website.

yock 12y ago

The opposite situation might even be worse. Pilot-in-command says you're go, but you're not keen on the weather. Suddenly the PIC is super pissed that you're not sharing the cost of the ride anymore, and you have a lot of very bad options. Pay for a ride you aren't going to take, get in an airplane in circumstances you feel aren't safe, or piss off this individual who's going to bad mouth you to everyone he knows. It really seems like this could persuade a lot of people to make bad decisions.

shapov 12y ago
Is there a baseline that could be established to dictate what bad weather is? So that the decision is taken away from both the pilot and the passenger?
- yock 12y ago
  If this baseline were so easily quantifiable, then there would be volumes written about it and the community would have settled on one long ago. The apparent risk is different for everyone, and weather is highly unpredictable.

maxcan 12y ago

> these rules are written on tombstones. I love the way you phrased that.