ORIGINAL: rwright142
gaRCfield,
Take your friend shopping. Tell them that you feel bad and that you can't put a price on your friendship so let them order what they want.
Be prepare for the sticker shock. You may think what you did was only worth $X but when your friend presents the bill be prepared to pay more.
I know you feel bad and perhaps you realize you should not have flown a borrowed plane in the manner you did, but you should let your friend determine the damage. You may disagree with it, but that is how I would do it.
Alternatively, just ask him what he feels a fair amount of the cost would be and give him the cash.
WHAT!!?? What if he wants a fully loaded giant scale aerobat?
I like to think I'm a fairly nice guy, but not THAT nice. Ask him if he would either like the aircraft replaced like new or an equivalent sum of money to put towards something else.
This is exactly why I don't like to fly other people's aircraft. I will train people and maiden an aircraft if somebody asks, but won't just fly something around for fun. Believe it or not, I get asked if I want to fly somebodies aircraft just for fun quite a bit (I must be fooling them into thinking I can fly worth a darn
). Anyway, I almost never take people up on their offer because I get so darn nervous about it. If I do, I make darn sure I can afford to replace the aircraft and have the time to replace it promptly.