Vastly Underemp said:
Vastly, I have been in this game over 40 years, and, like you, (I think) I was schooled in the concept that logging PIC meant you were actually the PIC and had to have all the paperwork to back that up when logging PIC.
Even when I read 61.51, my mind sub-conciously "assumed" this in the background, and 61.51 was laying out some specific rules about that acting PIC. I still continued to resist the idea that you could log PIC when you were not. It does not make sense, and I am against it as a practice.
However, I have come to read 61.51 in the pure black-and-white that it is, and no where does it say you have to BE the PIC.
If you are sole manipulator of the controls (and they even accept turning on the auto pilot as "sole manipulator"), and the rating is on your certificate, as in ASEL or AMEL or what ever - never mind the required endoresements, medicals currency, etc. because you are not BEING the PIC - he's sitting in the airplane next to you - you can log this "sole manipulator" time as PIC. Says it right there in 61.51. Doesn't say you have to be acting as PIC - just that you are sole manipulator.
And the guy who is the PIC cannot log it unless he is an instructor and is giving dual. Or he is required to be there as in FAR required safety pilot or co-pilot.
Stupid, isn't it. I agree with your concept. I think it has destroyed the meaning of logging PIC. These days, almost all the logged PIC is as an FO, a safety pilot, dual instruction (as a student), etc. Now the interviewers have to dissect the applicant's PIC time.