The wife and I are taking a few days vacation in Las Vegas this summer. A friend who lives in Vegas has graciously offered to take us up in their plane for a flight over the canyon to Sedona for dinner one afternoon while we are there. While I don't know the model of the aircraft, they indicated it was a 4 seater so I'd assume a single engine, propeller driven, smaller model. My question for you folks are these:

If I want to offer to help with the costs of the flight, what would be a rough estimate of fuel and operations costs for a flight like that?

They have made no mention of me helping with the costs and I don't think they would, as I imagine they are offering it without strings, but I certainly feel better about pitching in my share. Would you, as a pilot be offended if someone in this situation offered to pitch in?

The dinner in Sedona would be on me in any case.

Thanks!

First of all, if he does not have a commercial rating, it is not legal for him to accept more than 50% of actual expenses.  

Beyond that, I would offer my personal view.  If it were me, I would be going flying, with or without you.  Taking passengers is a bonus.  Flying by yourself gets boring, and sharing the experience with others is the best.  Repay him some other way, if you feel that you must.

Thank you for your perspective. He is a professional pilot but I don't have any clue if he would have the appropriate ratings.

I will likely take it as a gift and look for some other way to give back.

Well, you could google the average fuel burn per hour for that model, then multiply it by the total flight time, times the fuel cost per gallon. Then multiply x 2, for a rough idea.  

So, 4 hour flight x 10 GPH, =  40 gal total fuel burn x $5 per gallon, $200.   Add another $200 for maintenance reserves, and you're in the ball park.    

Basically, if he will let you pay for the fuel, then that would be about half.   Roughly speaking.   Pay cash, if possible.

Thanks for the input.

Offer to pay for the fuel at Sedona.

Whenever I take folks for a ride, I never expect any shared costs, but won't refuse if offered.

You're going to love KSEZ.

Yeah looks pretty neat. I hope we get to take the flight, it's one of the bigger things I'm looking forward to on our trip. Unfortunately a few details have cropped up that may have us change our plans.

I fly tours at Grand Canyon. It's a very regulated airspace and be sure he has an SFRA chart of it. "Flying in the purple," as we call it, is strictly forbidden. Keep a good mind of altitudes, too.