If you ride along with him and equally share the costs of the flight, there is nothing the FAA would say. He would be walking on shaky ground if he makes the flight specifically for your pix and you give hime any kind of recompense for it.

I did that last week.   The photos sucked, cause I don't have any experience in aerial photography.



He is already planning on going back to take pictures of the property on his own.   He said he'd show me the photos.  I asked him if i can have the file, print one out, and hand it out for free.

As was mentioned in the other thread. Make sure no money changes hands. (or anything of value).

The FAA is quite strict on "illegal charters", "for hire flights" and other situations where money is involved.

However, it's absolutely no problem to take aerial photo's (within reason of course). Hand the pilot your camera. Enjoy the results.

You can't pay your friend for a flight. You could split the costs. But, there is a new ruling on that one. You both must have a similar interest in the flight. For example, Bob and I want to fly to Oshkosh. We can split the costs in my airplane. Example 2: In your case, you want pics. Your pilot does not. If you split costs, your pilot would be, under current interpretation, violating the law. It used to be less strict.

Who cares? You could do this for years and never get caught. However, the FAA will revoke his ticket without delay or recourse, on the spot. In fact, the way these guys act now, I'd be surprised if a pilot caught doing this ever fly's again.

That sucks. I do NOT want this guy to get into trouble. He is going to pursue a commercial license for his career.



Is there any issue if they are my photos I already took when we were up? They aren't high quality, but they'd be better than nothing. Basically, I just thought it would be cool to give recent aerial photos to the entrants of a golf tourney, free of charge.

http://www.avweb.com/news/avlaw/186346-1.html

The issue ain't how YOU use them, but how you GET them.

If you give ANY kind of recompense to your pilot chum, then he could lose his license. He CAN if he chooses to do so, take pictures and SHARE them with you, and what you do with them is your bidness. Again, as long as you don't provide any sort of compensation (film, dinner, beers after the flight, etc) there SHOULDN'T be a problem, but it really all boils down to how much of a dick the feds want to be.

Split the cost 50/50 to fly somewhere for a $100 hamburger.

Enroute to $100 hamburger, take a picture or 300 of the scenery to commemorate your flight.

If that route happened to be over the golf course...

or just post the pictures to a website like facebook, and what you do from there is your business. he was just taking pictures.

The FAA is like the ATF, it depends which inspector you talk to and deal with.  Its a shame that we have to get so silly over such a small thing, but if you let people get compensation for a picture, next thing they will be flying people for vacations and stuff.  Give an inch...........................

If the flight is going without you, yes, it's legal.  
If you're not charging for your pictures, yes, it's legal.
If you're not compensating him for his time, yes, it's legal.