In furtherance of a business....

[drseti]

None of those two interpretations sounds to me like they are clear about flying to your place of employment just about performing flights that are part of your work like flying to meet clients or flying to meet people who your job pays you to check up on (like in the 2011 interpretation).

That's true, but you can't claim that the need to be at work at a certain time wouldn't influence your go/no-go decision process (and potentially lead to decisions that compromise safety). I tell my Sport Pilot candidates that they need to ask themselves before every flight, "on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it for me to make this trip?" If the answer is 5 or above, I tell them, you'd better drive.

Just because the rules say a particular flight is legal, that doesn't necessarily make it prudent.

[fatsportpilot]

None of those two interpretations sounds to me like they are clear about flying to your place of employment just about performing flights that are part of your work like flying to meet clients or flying to meet people who your job pays you to check up on (like in the 2011 interpretation).

That's true, but you can't claim that the need to be at work at a certain time wouldn't influence your go/no-go decision process (and potentially lead to decisions that compromise safety). I tell my Sport Pilot candidates that they need to ask themselves before every flight, "on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it for me to make this trip?" If the answer is 5 or above, I tell them, you'd better drive.

Just because the rules say a particular flight is legal, that doesn't necessarily make it prudent.

I understand totally but I was curious about the law. So it sounds to me like it is legal (but just barely and if you do any flying FOR your work then it's illegal) but it could be risky if it affects your decision making. Sound about right?

It would be safe in a situation where a person flies to the area of the city where they work and spends some time there and then in an hour heads off to work (if there was any problem with the plane or weather then they could just drive there no problem). But not a situation where they fly to work and clock in right away and any delays affect their job. And certainly not doing anything FOR the business.

[designrs]

Often, there is a lot of gray area and vastly different situations concerning “in the furtherance of a business.”

Examples with “!” Indicating higher correlation to violations:

!!!!! Flying to a satellite office or client meeting every week and telling the FBO and everyone else that will listen, “I’m here for business and I fly on a Sport Pilot Certificate.”
!!!! Flying solely for a one-day business purpose.
!!! Flying to personal recreation which is awful conveniently incidental for business as well.
!! Flying to attend events planning to mix business and recreation. (e.g. Planned golfing with a client.)
! Flying with 100% expectation of recreation which unexpectedly led to a business activity. (Unexpectedly met a client while golfing.)
! Flying to a location where you live or vacation for an extended time. While you are there for a month, you also do some business to pay your bills.

Flying solely for recreation is what the Sport Pilot Certificate is for. All of the other situations range from blatant violation to barely worth debating.

While lawyers can provide insight, most can argue either side of the situation... forever!

Consider where your business activity would register on the “truth / ethics meter,” the intent of the regulation, past enforcement cases, as well as your visibility and credibility of the situation.

More importantly, as always, consider your personal limitations. Legal doesn’t always mean safe.

(I don’t think that the “time window” or “clock-in time” would be a reasonable exemption to the regulations.)

[fatsportpilot]

(I don’t think that the “time window” or “clock-in time” would be a reasonable exemption to the regulations.)

Right someone can't work overtime just to get around regs. But flying to the location you work does not seem anything at all like flying to a meeting or flying to meet people that your job pays you to meet.

[drseti]

flying to the location you work does not seem anything at all like flying to a meeting or flying to meet people that your job pays you to meet.

That all depends upon the nature of the job, and the potential consequences of arriving late. It's all about the kind of pressure you would be under to make the flight. A person who would get fired for arriving late should never depend upon GA to get to work (regardless of his or her ratings).