Rules and Principles

How it works

Upon request, Love4aviation will provide you with the contact details (email and phone number) of a host pilot. You MUST be yourself a host pilot to request contact details of other host pilots, therefore you must join our Pilot Exchange Program first, it's free. To do so, simply contact us.
You can then contact the host pilot you have chosen and arrange your trip with him/her.
This program is opened to ALL pilots: Fixed wing, Rotary Wing, Sail gliders, LSA, Balloon etc.
You do not need to own an aircraft to join the Pilot Exchange Program. All you need is to have access to an aircraft and be suitably qualified to fly cross country with a passenger.
Below, we have set out some basic rules and principles to guide you through your agreement with the other pilots.
The trips shouldn’t necessarily be long trips, the aim of the PEP is to help pilots get in touch, and there is no expectation on the duration/number of the flights offered by host pilots. We don’t see why a guest pilot shouldn’t be able to visit a country and do some flying locally here and there during his trip by visiting various hosts, and we don’t see why a host pilot would have to offer multi-day or cross country trips. The PEP would then allow the guest pilot to plan ahead his flying, leaving him the choice of putting some flying into his holiday or some holiday into his flying, for example by organizing his visit around the flying possibilities offered through the PEP program, as it isn’t simple to find the time and access to organize some flying during a holiday due to lack of internet access, lack of local knowledge, language barrier etc. Anyone who has tried organizing some flying in a foreign country without wasting an entire day of holiday will understand. With the PEP, you can find pilots whom you know are willing to fly with you, are speaking English, have access to an aircraft which you can chose etc. You won’t go to the local aeroclub just to find closed doors.

Rules and principles

1) Between pilots of the exchange program

1-1) Reciprocity

The host pilot does not have to go flying with his former guest. He can choose any country and any new host regardless of who he has previously received. The reasoning behind it being that freedom of choice and community spirit are the underlying principles: it would be counterproductive to make a host feel he has to travel to his former guest’s place. Same goes the other way round; guests shall become hosts for any other pilots and not only for the pilots who have received them.

1-2) Flight charges

Payment of the flight charges shall be agreed on a case by case between each pilot. However, based on our experience we suggest the following principle: The guest pilot pays the fuel charges whereas the host pilot keeps all other costs for him.

1-2-1) Advantage

The advantage of doing so is that it simplifies the payment as we suggest the guest pilot subscribes to international fuel cards (BP, Shell etc) in his own country so that he will deal with the payments on his own and this will remove any need to do accounting and to have outstanding payments after the guest pilot goes back home.

1-2-2) Reasoning

The reasoning behind this principle is as follow:

1-2-2-1) Operating costs
For a privately owned aircraft of general type, as a rule of thumb the sharing of the costs is:

1/3 for the fixed costs: hangar, insurance, market depreciation, wearing off for the paint etc.
1/3 for the variable costs excluding fuel: spark plugs, oil, filter, tires, calendar maintenance, overhauls, compliance costs etc.
1/3 for the fuel.

1-2-2-2) Variable costs
Considering that the host pilot would bear the fixed costs whether he flies or not, the guest pilot shall not participate in them. We are not in an aeroclub or flying school logic. The host pilot has bought a private aeroplane for personal motives, not to host a foreign pilot in the first place.

1-2-3) White elephant

We are therefore left with the variable costs and fuel costs to share. As a rule of thumb they are generally equal, so if the guest pilot pays for the fuel we can say he is participating fairly to the running costs of the flying. If the host pilot owns an aircraft of a particular type that is known for having high maintenance costs, such as a warbird, a vintage aircraft or a helicopter, then he shall agree with the guest pilot for a hourly participation contribution to these maintenance costs.

1-2-4) Cross Country costs

We recognise there are variable costs specific to cross country flying, such as landing fees and flight plan charges. Again, by applying the same principle, we suggest that to cover these costs the guest pilot would top up the tanks at the beginning and top up the tanks at the end. The excess fuel provided by the guest pilots should cover these administrative costs.

1-2-5) not for hire or reward

Another advantage of this method is that it removes the risk of misinterpretation by the Civil Aviation or an insurer of the “not for hire or reward” rule applied to aircraft on permits to fly or any “commercial operations” for a type certificated aircraft. This avoids any need for commercial certifications and insurance and allows for non type certificated aircraft to join the program. In any case the agreement between pilots for the payment of the flying shall comply with local Civil Aviation rules.

1-3) Accommodation

The guest pilot is solely responsible for arranging his own accommodation during the trip. However we would expect the host pilot to offer as much assistance as possible to the guest pilot. We also highlight that the flying is only one of the many benefits thought after by members of the Pilot Exchange Program. As for any travel, discovering new cultures and sharing life with foreign people are as important as the flying itself, we would therefore expect host pilots to try to accommodate the guest pilots whenever possible.

1-4) Debriefing (between pilots)

As good practice, we encourage debriefings between the host pilots and the guest pilots. Our suggestion would be that not less than one week (cooling-off period) but not more than one month after the trip, each pilot shall send to the other pilot a debriefing of his experience. Love4aviation shall not be involved in the process. Whatever the previous communications exchanged between pilots, this debriefing would cover all aspects of the experience and be in a document separate from other communications (specific email, Word document etc). While courteous, this debriefing would be as constructive as possible, with comments on all positive areas that shall be developed further for the next pilots and all negative areas that shall be improved for the next pilots, along with proposals for improvements.

2) Between you and Love4aviation

2-1) No Charge

Love4aviation’s Pilot Exchange Program is a service offered free of charge to members.

2-2) No Liability

Love4aviation does not accept any liability related to any activity arising from the Pilot Exchange Program.

2-3) No Warranties

While every care has been taken in preparing the information and materials contained in this site, such information and materials are provided to you "AS IS" without warranty of any kind either express or implied. In particular, no warranty regarding non-infringement, security, accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose is given in conjunction with such information and materials.

2-4) Public and Confidential information

Each pilot shall provide us with information related to the program. Some of this information will be made public on our website while some information will be kept confidential and released only to guest pilots.

2-4-1) Public information:

Country and City where you are living (not the airfield, not the address)
Type of aircraft available for the guest pilot (maybe more than one)
Your profile (optional): to the minimum, your flying experience (hours) and ratings, but preferably a more consistent profile including some information aimed at giving a general presentation of yourself to the guest pilot. As an example you can read Samuel Balley’s profile
Preferred time to be called, in local time (optional)

2-4-2) Confidential information:

Contact information: email, telephone, skype

2-5) Articles

We would love pilots to write articles to be published on our website for the benefit of other members. These articles can be written by the guest pilot, the host pilot, or better still both of them during the trip. These articles can cover any point of interest of the trip (city, national park etc) or the organisation of the trip itself. The aim being to provide information to our website visitors so as to motivate them to join the Pilot Exchange Program: The more hosts, the more choice of places to visit and aircraft to fly.

2-6) Video/Photo

We would love pilots to send us their videos and photos to be inserted in our yearly community video.

2-7) Feedback (to Love4aviation)

Each pilot (both the guest and the host) must send to Love4aviation a feedback of his experience. These comments will never be made public nor provided to any other parties. They are for the use of Love4aviation only and intended to help us implement changes in or fine tune operations of the Pilot Exchange Program. This feedback shall cover all aspects of the exchange, including flight safety, flight planning, condition of the aircraft, cost of flying, organisation of the trips, attitude of the other pilots, points of interest, possible improvements etc.

2-8) Testimonial

We would expect pilots having had a positive experience to send us a testimonial to be published on our website. If possible, photography shall illustrate the testimonial.

2-9) No Obligation

Love4aviation reserves the right to remove any member from the Pilot Exchange Program at any time. Not providing a feedback to Love4aviation could be a sufficient reason to be withdrawn from the program.

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