Student pilot question

[kingfisher]

A friend of mine recently flew at night in the right seat of a C172 with a qualified instuctor in the left seat. Can she legally log the nighttime sitting in the right seat? Her instructor says she cannot, she must sit in the left seat. Anyone?

 

[midlifeflyer]

Edited: Just noticed that we were dealing with a student pilot.

It depends. The only flights that student pilots can log are training flights and solo flights.

Did the CFI endorse it as an instructional flight to begin with? It shouldn't make any difference which seat the student is in in order to log the flight, but a CFI has a bit of discretion on what the CFI considers to be instruction. Maybe the CFI was just doing a demonstration flight and didn't want to count it as a training flight?

 

[mayday1]

Even if she is not a private or recreational pilot - i.e. just a student pilot - I would think she could still log the time. As midlife said, there's no reg about which seat you're in.

 

[JAFI]

What was the purpose of the flight?

The student can log it if:

If it was an instructional flight with the direction of a flight instructor who will sign the students log book.

The student (with the proper endorcements-student pilot or pilot certificate) was alone in the aircraft.

The student cannot log it if:

The student was in a pilot seat going for a ride (not instruction). In this case if the CFI says it was not an instruction flight, then tell the student they cannot log it.

Note: the right or left seat doesn't matter, what matters is who is Pilot in command, what certificate or type of training is being done.
JAFI