The mission of Angel Flight is to facilitate access to health care by arranging free air transportation in private aircraft in response to medical and other compelling human needs. Angel Flight links volunteer private pilots with people in need whose health care problems require long distance travel to and from medical facilities.
Angel Flight is a tax exempt, nonprofit organization.
Angel Flight is an opportunity to combine your love of flying with volunteer community service. Your participation will benefit people whose medical problems have left them without the funds to reach places where they can get needed diagnosis or treatment.
It costs $50 to join, and annual dues are $35. www.angelflight.org 1-888-4-an-angel 1-888-426-2643-
Maybe I am in a bad mood today as I was going to follow through in joining Angel Flights, but I find this ludicrous that I have to pay to donate my time and efforts…
I mean really, $50 to maintain my pilot record for maybe one or two Angel flights a month? Must be some pretty pricey hats / shirts / manuals???
In addition, what do I get for $35 a year if I am to paying to *volunteer". At least with AOPA, I get magazines, junk mail and other benefits that I benefit from this yearly subscription.
Something in my simple mind just doesn’t add up. I shouldn’t have to pay anything to donate my time / av gas and efforts.
And why only new pilots? Doesn’t it take the same resources to maintain a database for all pilots?
I know aviation is expensive as it is just to maintain a bird but other then my AOPA membership, I just can’t justify having subscriptions and annual dues for everything else aviation can provide!
I realize the intent of what this organization is trying to do, but it sure just seems to be another way to gouge General Aviation.
Sorry Angel Flight for dissing you, but something just doesn’t add up. Feel free to contact me if this does land up in some one’s lap in the upper food chain of this organization.
After all, the benefits of joining a charitable organization is that warm fuzzy feeling that one gets in contributing to those in need, I shouldn’t have to pay (other then my time / gas and efforts) to get that warm fuzzy feeling .
After all, I am the one giving, not taking or using the organization for my medical needs??? Something is bass ackwards here.
Seems to be dependent on geography Allen, Angel Flight Northeast only requires a $25 filing fee with your volunteer pilot/non-pilot application as far as I can see.
Something is not right and I sure hope the Angel Flight folks that make any type of decisions of this nature is monitoring this thread (or somebody forwards this to them).
Just makes me wonder how many NEW pilots are thinking along the lines I am when dealing with the SE sector.
To have to pay to be a volunteer is incomprehensible, much less to say new pilots pay a $35 annual fee (as compared to pilots of the past who don’t pay anything would be my guess) and pay a $50.00 signup fee.
I am reasonable enough to think, ok, a REASONABLE setup fee is ok, but an annual fee for something I am volunteering to do? I still cannot digest this.
I don’t know the volunteer requirements for Habitat for Humanity, but I do know that a couple people that have contributed to this volunteer services and they were not charged anything to volunteer. Just bring “body” “talent” and “tools” and the material was donated by local vendors. And for the volunteers I know, they didn’t even bring tools, as that was provided by the local vendors.
All they provided was the labor and the love of being able to contribute to society in a positive way.
$50.00 buys quite a bit of Av Gas in my Sundowner which would be far better put to the services of what Angel Flights is designed for then sign up / annual fees.
$35.00 is one hour operating cost in my Sundowner (av gas cost only) which should be applied to those in need, not an annual fee for something I am volunteering time and effort.
Another FA member was gracious enough to point me to graceflight.org/ which does the same thing for Mississippi as Angel Flight SE sans signup and annual fees.
For the record, I share your sentiments. Nobody should have to PAY a fee to volunteer the “body, talent and tools”. Especially the talent to fly an airplane and the cost of operating one.
At first I too thought it was a little off to pay to be a volunteer pilot for AngelFlight, but you get over it pretty quickly. It is a fine organization with very good people both on the volunteer and support sides of the house. The missions really help people while allowing you to do something that you love - flying. If the principle or dollars (the price of a few gallon of avgas) are more than you can get comfortable with, then there are other fine charitable organizations you could support with your time and/or money instead.
So, you feel it would be ok for Red Cross to charge you to donate blood? After all, Red Cross is a charitable organization. What do you think the going rate should be, 25 cents a pint per donation?
I say this tongue in cheek as I still don’t buy what you say.
The idea of volunteerism is being able to give. I shouldn’t be charged for giving. REASONABLE setup fee’s OK (and to be honest, this is pushing the edge of my limits), annual fees, not ok. To charge the very core that makes the organization run is incomprehensible. I call this gouging GA.
Just curious, do you know of any volunteer organizations that charge their members to help out in their organization? I honestly don’t know of any. I don’t think the bell ringers pay Salvation Army to ring their bells collecting money for the needy?
Like you said, there are fortunately choices such as graceflight.org/ but unfortunately had I not posted my issues here, I still wouldn’t have known I had choices.
Grace Flight will get my application AND I get to do what you said in the very beginning, give to society while doing something I love - flying.
BTW Avgas my way is averaging $4. a gallon.
$85 for the first year would buy me just about 2 hours of flight time which is significant amount of time that would not have been given DIRECTLY to those in need.
** $85 for the first year is not just a few gallons of Av Gas**. (Unless of course, your Avgas is much more expensive then mine)
Angel Flight South East is a volunteer service, not a club therefore, the participants should not be charged to give their time and efforts to share their talents with those in need.
As I said before, I think you have a valid point. So, while I could quibble and point out that the annual fees are tax deductible and therefore the $85 becomes ‘only’ $50 +/- after tax, I agree that you are paying something to donate your time to the charity. To answer you second question, yes, other charitable organizations do something similar (with a couple of twists). I sit on several charitable boards and they all expect every director to make a substantive contribution each year. I know one in SF that requires a minimum $5000 annual contribution and another in Chicago that requires a minimum of $2500. In my experience, this type of thing is the norm. As with AngelFlight, I can get comfortable with it because I support the organization. I respect that you and others may feel differently.
In other words, they can by themselves a seat on the board?
The rank-and-file - the people who do the majority of the “grunt” work - shouldn’t be expected to have to pay dues to volunteer their services.
I have volunteered at community theatres for many years. This, in many cases, takes up a lot of time. If I was expected to pay them for donating my services, I would show them what my backside looks like as I walked through the door.
I also sit on the boards of several charitable/educational organizations, none of which require a donation apart from annual membership dues where necessary.
As I said, to each his/her own. If you look at any of the major charitable organizations in Chicago, NY, Boston or SF, the places I know best, (NY Symphony, Stanford, Chicago Ballet, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Harvard, etc.) you will see that the board makes substantive annual contributions, often totaling millions of dollars.
While you might show such organizations your backside Dami (not a great visual, BTW), I consider it a privilege to be associated with such fine work.
We are talking about two different things here. As a grunt in the charity, why should I pay to volunteer my time? As I alluded to, the reason the people are on the boards of directors of the organizations you mentioned is because they bought their seats on them.
Angel flight is a good organization. If I was a pilot, I would volunteer my services and fuel for them but if they insist on nickel-and-diming me by having an annual due then they won’t get my services.
Do you remember what I drive? I own a 60K Sundowner, not a Lear.
The only time director comes up in my vocabulary is when I see on TV the guy that swings a doo dad in front of an orchestra.
Boards are what I pound nails into.
I have never sat in a high back chair behind a mahogany or cherry wood desk or conference table.
I sit in a secretarial chair wanting to give back to society the very little fortunate oppurtunity life has given me. Pretty much don’t care about milti million dollar contributions from organizations that play music, theators and white gloved events.
I am talking about an organization that most common folks like myself would like to assist.
Apparently $85 means a lot less to you then us common folks, which I can respect, but for those more endowed in money then myself need to check back in with reality and understand, not all of us have tax shelters, money market accounts, stocks, yada yada, yada to hide our income and assets behind.
And again, this pawn in the scheme of things should not have to pay to volunteer. I can’t state it much simpler then that.
It’s just flat out unconscionable (sp? too lazy to look it up) that what little extra income I do have get sucked up by some fee. (I can’t write it off as you suggest as I take the standard deduction)
The directors should be looking to “corporate America” to get subsidy for administrative costs, not me, probably the person that least can afford fees to volunteer my time.
I am there volunteering my time and efforts to serve somebody in need, not some coffer that sits in a high back chair in front of a conference table.
I would sure love to see Angel Flight SE justify these expenses. I haven’t checked out the other sectors, but so far, they are highest in these so called “administrative costs” based on the postings in this thread.
I am just very glad some other FA member pointed me to another alternative. I can only hope that I get the word out to other pilots that they do have choices when giving their time.
I am volunteering my time and efforts, not joining some golf club, theatrical place or symphony.
Hopefully all the Angel flight sectors are lurking in here, seeing the bad PR they are getting in front of the very people who are the foundation of the organizations survival and rethink their ways of charging pilots whom volunteer their time for a very worthy cause!!!.
They must have waaaaaay too many pilot’s volunteering their resources for free already
( ), so they must have something in place to slow down the number of applications. My guess is that it’s working really well and that it’s slowed down to nothing, which is why Angel Fish posted in the forum. I’ll bet that you’ll find the same speil posted on every aviation forum on the Web before long.
per 
), so they must have something in place to slow down the number of applications. My guess is that it’s working really well and that it’s slowed down to nothing, which is why Angel Fish posted in the forum. I’ll bet that you’ll find the same speil posted on every aviation forum on the Web before long.