AOPA Article - Logging Time

[midlifeflyer]

If you're not qualified as a PIC in category and class, then you're also not legal as a safety pilot either. The safety pilot must be qualified and current to perform those duties too. So basing that the safety pilot is qualified and current, then he may log PIC.

Not in the safety pilot case. All the regs require of the safety pilot who is =not= acting as PIC is ratings in category and class and medical currency. Flight review currency, landing currency, and the endorsements needed to act as PIC in, say a high performance aircraft, are not required to be a safety pilot. It's is, of course, required to be a safety pilot who is also acting as PIC.

 

[dmspilot00]

Scenario:

A private pilot with an instrument rating, "Bob," wants to practice some instrument approaches in a Cessna 172. He is already current but wants to maintain his currency. The weather is clear VFR. He grabs another private pilot, "Mary," who does not have an instrument rating, to act as safety pilot. Bob files an IFR flight plan for the flight--for practice. They take off, and Bob flies under the hood for 2.0 hours, all in visual conditions.

How do Bob and Mary log the time? They both want to log it as they need to build time for their Commercial certificates.

[I know the answer, and I'm sure midlifeflyer does too, but let's see if anyone gets it wrong first.]

 

[ultrarunner]

I look at it in a different way. Unless you're a professional pilot, I don't think it makes any sense to log anytime except that time which is required.

I would ask the question: Am I REQUIRED, by regulatory requirements, to log this type of time.

I'm happy to sit there and ride shot-gun for ya while you shoot some approaches, etc...., but YOU are the PIC, YOU are RESPONSIBLE for the safety of this flight, etc...

In today's society, there is no reason to put your certificates on the line if you don't have to.

There's a reason my CFI hasn't been renewed ;-)

 

[onthebeach]

I recommend going to www.propilot.com and looking at Doc's explanation of this issue. It's the definitive one, as he includes FAA Chief Counsel letters of interpretation.

The short answer is, yes, the safety pilot can legally log SIC in this situation.

As to whether or not I'd log the time...any flight time that is legal is valid experience and should count toward total time, total time being one (but not the only) valid measure of a pilot's experience. Any prospective employer who rejects a candidate who logs flight time in accordance with the FARs is probably an employer I'd stay away from. After all, if that employer doesn't know the FARs concerning such a simple thing as logging flight time, what else doesn't he know?

 

[midlifeflyer]

I look at it in a different way. Unless you're a professional pilot, I don't think it makes any sense to log anytime except that time which is required.

Why not? Even the "feel good" of having "X" hours logged is a legitimate reason. From a more practical standpoint, aviation insurers base some underwriting decisions on it. FBOs base rental decisiions on it. You might decide to go for some additional certificate or rating in the future. Maybe you think those reasons don't make sense, but others do.

 

[BLing]

AOPA tried telling me that I could log safety pilot time as SIC when I was a retarded private pilot. I thought that would be stupid, so I never logged it. Now that I am more educated as a pilot I know that I will never listen to anything those idiots say ever again. I have about 15 hrs of M20J time that I never put in my logbook. I guess I could add it now, but that would just make my logbook look unorganized.

 

[midlifeflyer]

You lost me.

"They told me something correct. I didn't listen to them. Now that I know they were right I'll never listen to them again."

 

[A Squared]

You lost me.

"They told me something correct. I didn't listen to them. Now that I know they were right I'll never listen to them again."

Yeah, my mind is still reeling from trying to follow the logic of that one.