The Pilots’ Lounge: The Air Care Alliance

When I look around the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport, it seems that almost every pilot is involved in volunteer flying—known as public benefit flying—in some fashion. Cali and Josh enjoy making Young Eagles flights, Kambiz has been active in the Civil Air Patrol for years, John makes medical transportation flights through Angel Flight West, I’ve been making flights in support of conservation and natural resources for LightHawk since the early 1990s, and others are active with Pilots N Paws, the organization that rescues dogs (and other pets) from areas where they are at risk to get them to no-kill shelters, foster care or new humans, that will care for them long-term. 

The willingness of pilots to donate their time, skills, money, and aircraft to help others has always moved me. It’s no surprise that public benefit flying has taken off (sorry, couldn’t help it) in the last 20 years to a point that it is a significant segment of general aviation. As more and more members of the public find out that it is possible to get free help for non-urgent medical transportation (the biggest segment of public benefit flying), saving small animals at risk, protecting the land and waters around them, disaster relief, helping a veteran travel to a gathering or memorial, or any of the many services provided by public benefit flying organizations, more and more requests are made for help. As more pilots discover that they can use their skills and knowledge to be of help to others, they seek to volunteer. 

Public benefit flying is conducted in conjunction with volunteer pilot organizations (VPO). A pilot looks over VPOs that have an overall mission that the pilot wants to support, joins one or more of them, complies with some membership, minimum PIC hours, and safety requirements (often taking a flight review every year rather than every two years) and starts volunteering for flights. Usually, the VPO posts information on flights needed and pilot members sign up to make ones they would like to fly. 

A pilot can make flights to help others, but to get a tax deduction the flight must be in conjunction with a VPO that is a nonprofit charitable organization. There have been a number of instances where well-meaning pilots have loaded their airplanes up with supplies and flown somewhere seeking to help with disaster relief. Almost invariably their failure to coordinate with the organizations involved with the relief meant they mostly got in the way, taking up scarce ramp space and sometimes violating temporary flight restrictions. In my experience around public benefit flying the most effective way to volunteer is through a VPO. 

So, person A needs help and pilot B wants to help. How do they get together? How does person A learn what help is available and where to ask for it? How does the pilot B find out what VPOs are out there to join, learn what the rules about public benefit flying are and make an informed decision about making a particular volunteer flight? 

Air Care Alliance to the Rescue

In the early 1990s, the Air Care Alliance (ACA), was formed to act as a clearinghouse, support organization, and overall advocate for public benefit flying and VPOs, the organizations that are on the front lines and make the pairing of a pilot and person needing the flight. The ACA has grown into effectively an umbrella organization for VPOs to help them coordinate services, reducing overlap; help pilots find the right VPOs to fly with; help the public find a VPO that can provide the service needed; provide a meetinghouse for VPOs to discuss best operating practices and mutual support; disseminate safety information to VPOs; and be a vocal advocate for volunteer pilots and VPOs with the FAA and others. 

The ACA is not a VPO—it assists all VPOs.

Accomplishments

Early on, the ACA worked with the FAA on interpretation of Federal Aviation Regulations regarding pilot compensation and convinced the FAA and IRS that it was perfectly all right for a pilot to take a charitable tax deduction for volunteer flights she or he made in conjunction with a VPO’s mission. 

In addition, the ACA helps those seeking services find a VPO that can help. The Air Care Alliance’s deep and informative website has a button at the top center of its home page that takes a person needing help directly into an application for medical care or pet transport and gets the request to VPOs that are in a position to help. It’s one-stop-shopping at its finest.

In addition, the ACA’s website explains that VPOs are not air ambulances and do not provide medical care during a flight. It points those who have a non-ambulatory patient who needs medical care for a flight to air ambulance transportation companies. 

Safety

Safety of flight is a constant focus of the Air Care Alliance and VPOs. Some years ago, the ACA worked with AOPA to create an interactive training course for pilots engaged in public benefit flying entitled Public Benefit Flying: Balancing Safety and Compassion. In my opinion it’s an excellent course and I’ve noticed that most VPOs require pilots who make flights in cooperation with them to pass the course prior to making flights. ACA and AOPA also cooperated on a course that is quite applicable to volunteer pilots because many of them took some years to acquire the assets necessary to own an airplane and donate flights: Aging Gracefully, Flying Safely. 

Call Signs

Another accomplishment of the ACA came after a great deal of work by its longtime chairman, Rol Morrow, was the creation of the call sign “Compassion” for public benefit flights. There was a desire to create a call sign that conveyed to ATC that the aircraft was engaged in an activity that might require some special handling—although not at the level of urgent medical transport. Such handling is often starting down from altitude earlier and in a more gentle descent than usual to help persons who might have ear or breathing problems or that an aircraft is going to be circling over a specific area for photography. “Compassion” is now an international call sign that is administered by ACA through its website.

The ”Compassion” call sign allows volunteer pilots to clearly identify to ATC that their operations are bona fide public benefit flights. It can provide an increased level of safety and security, especially for passengers with special needs, and may result in better routing and special handling for a pilot. 

The “Compassion” call sign and its three-letter designator CMF were assigned to ACA as its authorized administrator in 1999. The procedure to obtain and use the call sign has evolved, with the most recent change taking place in early 2020. 

A pilot-programmable ADS-B Out transponder is required for use of the call sign in designated airspace. According to the ACA, to avoid call sign mismatch pilots need to ensure that their broadcasted flight ID exactly matches what is in the flight plan. If a pilot has a question about editing the flight ID on the ADS-B Out unit a call to the avionics shop can usually answer it. Editing an ID can be easier than many pilots expect. 

Discreet call signs are now issued to verified pilots of authorized organizations. Register for a call sign here.

If you’re a nonprofit volunteer pilot organization that would like to become an authorized user of CMF contact ACA to learn how: k.luke@aircarealliance.org. 

I’ll point out here that volunteer pilots make flights in conjunction with VPOs. The VPO is never the operator of the airplane involved in the flight. The volunteer pilot is the operator and always remains the pilot in command with final authority as to whether a flight takes place, the route, and the time, and can cancel a proposed flight without fear of negative feedback from the VPO. The VPO helps coordinate flights by matching pilots and passengers, providing pilots with relevant information about the proposed flight, and obtains permission for the VPO to use CMF. The pilot has full authority over the flight itself. 

Liability Considerations

I like that the ACA gives a great deal of information on its website that can help anyone who is considering becoming a volunteer pilot. It’s FAQs can be found here. 

One of the areas that I’ve found gets the attention of almost every pilot considering volunteer flying is that of potential liability. 

First of all, a pilot’s potential liability for a mishap while making a volunteer public benefit flight is no different than for flights he or she makes carrying a family member or friend and, due to legislation, may be less. 

All volunteer flights are made under Part 91 of the FARs as are flights made with family and friends. The pilot pays for the full cost of each flight—the passengers pay nothing—so the flight is not for hire. (There are some waivers in place that allow VPOs that meet certain requirements to reimburse their pilots who also meet certain requirements for the cost of fuel for flights.) 

After years of work by the ACA and other alphabet groups, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 included language that protects volunteer pilots from liability concerns. Volunteer pilots who conduct flights to help those in need on behalf of VPOs are not exposed to liability beyond the limits of their insurance coverage. In addition, many states have volunteer protection statutes that offer even greater protections. 

Further protection for pilots is provided by the requirement of virtually every VPO of which we are aware that each passenger sign a liability waiver prior to a flight. It adds an extra layer of liability protection for pilots and VPOs. While the effectiveness of liability waivers varies from state to state, they make it clear to anyone attempting to bring a suit that the passenger fully intended to hold the pilot and VPO harmless for any damages that may result due to a mishap in connection with the flight. 

Insurance

It’s been my experience that any pilot who has the personal resources to own an airplane and donate flights with it carries liability insurance for her or his flights in the airplane. Accordingly, the fact that a VPO requires a volunteer pilot to carry liability insurance should not be a hardship. I’ve also noted that the level of liability coverage required by a VPO is usually the same or less than a prudent pilot already carries.

Because a VPO is involved with coordinating flights, those flights involve risk, and many VPOs cannot get insurance that covers flights made by volunteer pilots at an affordable price or at all, many VPOs require that its volunteer pilots include the VPO as a “named insured” on the pilot’s aircraft insurance policy. This means that the VPO is covered along with the pilot for volunteer flights. Lately, insurers have required that pilots pay a small fee to add an additional “named insured” to their policies. For instance, for me to name LightHawk on my aircraft policy costs me $50 per year. Big deal. It helps protect an organization that I think is doing a tremendous amount of good for Americans in the case I screw up during a flight I make in support of it. I pay the fee, a very small percentage of my annual premium, without complaint. Yeah, I know, I’m like all pilots, I complain about paying anything to fly, but not this time. 

The Regs

Amazingly enough, there are Federal Aviation Regulations that pertain to volunteer flying. Who’d a thunk it? To start with, all volunteer flying is conducted under Part 91. That means that pilots cannot receive any compensation for the flight. None. Zip. 

That also means the pilot must pay the full cost of the flight, every nickel (pennies aren’t going to be minted as of 2026). The regs concerning sharing the cost of a flight do not apply to volunteer flying in conjunction with VPOs because the passengers (or animals being moved) do not pay anything for the flight—it’s a free flight for them. 

Accordingly, free flying time has been considered compensation to the pilot since general aviation was a lieutenant (if you want cases interpreting the FARs on pilot compensation, go to the NTSB website). If the pilot receives any compensation whatsoever, the flight is considered by the FAA to be “for hire” and must operate under Part 135 air taxi regulations. Otherwise, the flight is an illegal charter, an activity the FAA is increasingly willing to prosecute.

No compensation means that the VPO cannot own the aircraft and let the pilot use it for the flight. 

Making flights is expensive for volunteer pilots and they, as well as VPOs, always wish that they could afford to make more flights. There is pressure to violate the regs by compensating the pilots and rationalize that because the pilot and VPO are engaged in “good works” they can ignore the FARs. That simply isn’t the case. If the pilot accepts compensation for the flight and has an accident, the fact that it was an illegal charter is going to bring some very unpleasant FAA attention and potentially mean involved insurers won’t pay because the policy does not cover flights made for hire. 

VPOs fundraise to cover their costs but absolutely cannot use any of that money to pay for flights. The only exception is if there is a fuel reimbursement waiver in place for the VPO and both the VPO and pilot comply, the VPO may reimburse the pilot for the cost of fuel for the flight. That’s all. 

A pilot can take a tax deduction for some costs of a flight; due to work by the ACA the FAA and IRS agree that a tax deduction for humanitarian flights may be taken by the pilot.

The Air Care Alliance has a detailed outline of what is legal and what isn’t in the world of public benefit flying on a page of its website. 

The Rewards

According to the Air Care Alliance, thus far this year 13,144 volunteer pilots have made 14,535 flights, served 2,945 passengers, rescued 6,645 animals, and flown 1,707,541 miles. 

In the more than 30 years I’ve been making volunteer flights and have associated with volunteer pilots I’ve found that some of the most rewarding (not financially) flights I’ve made have been in conjunction with VPOs to help others. I’ve also met a lot of fascinating people who have become friends, an unexpected reward for using my ability to fly an airplane to help others.