This regulation provides the requirements for registering aircraft. It includes procedures for both owner and dealer registration of aircraft.

Pilots, flight instructors, and ground instructors are certificated under 14 CFR part 61. Flight crew other than pilots are certificated under 14 CFR part 63. However, many other people are also required to be certificated by the FAA for the U.S. aviation fleet to operate smoothly and efficiently. Title 14 CFR part 65 addresses many of those other people.

A more detailed discussion of this chapter with a special emphasis on mechanics is included in Chapter 15, The Mechanic Certificate.

This is the final regulation of the three major regulations identified earlier in this chapter. Note its interaction in Figure 2-6 with other regulations visually indicating its “operational” involvement or “recurrent airworthiness.” Although it is an operational regulation that is focused toward the owner, operator, and/or pilot of the aircraft, the maintenance technician must have an awareness of this regulation. Two examples of these maintenance related issues are:

This is the section of most interest to the technician. They must be familiar with it, because it does carry some (indirect) responsibility for the technician. Note that the 14 CFR part 91 icon in Figure 2-6 has a direct line to 14 CFR part 43. This is because section 91.403(b) states, “No person may perform maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations on an aircraft other than as prescribed in this subpart and other applicable regulations, including part 43 of this chapter.” A more complete discussion of this regulation, especially Subpart E—Maintenance, Preventive Maintenance, and Alterations is presented later in this chapter.

In order to better understand the next three regulations discussed here (14 CFR parts 121, 125, and 135) a brief overview of 14 CFR part 119 is beneficial. [Figure 2-8] There are more than 50 Advisory Circulars (ACs) in the 120 series alone providing additional non-regulatory information concerning the variety of procedures involved with these operations. There are basically three different criteria that must be analyzed in order to properly determine the regulation that applies. These are:

AC 120-12, as revised, provides the following definition regarding this criterion: A carrier becomes a common carrier when it “holds itself out” to the public, or to a segment of the public, as willing to furnish transportation within the limits of its facilities to any person who wants it. There are four elements in defining a common carrier:

This “holding out” that makes a person a common carrier can be done in many ways, and it does not matter how it is done. Signs and advertising are the most direct means of “holding out,” but are not the only ones.

Carriage for hire which does not involve "holding out" is private carriage. Private carriers for hire are sometimes called “contract carriers,” but the term is borrowed from the Interstate Commerce Act and legally inaccurate when used in connection with the Federal Aviation Act. Private carriage for hire is carriage for one or several selected customers, generally on a long-term basis. The number of contracts must not be too great; otherwise, it implies a willingness to make a contract with anybody. A carrier operating pursuant to 18 to 24 contracts has been held to be a common carrier, because it held itself out to serve the public generally to the extent of its facilities. Private carriage has been found in cases where three contracts have been the sole basis of the operator’s business.

Operations that constitute common carriage are required to be conducted under 14 CFR part 121 or 135. Private carriage may be conducted under 14 CFR part 91 or 125.

The term “for hire” is not defined in any of the FAA documents but is generally understood to mean that compensation for both direct and indirect expenses associated with the flight, as well as a profit margin for the operator, are collected from the person or persons benefiting from the flight operation.