Instrument PIC logging for the experts

Teacherjh wrote:
Well. if we want to pick nits (and isn't that what all
"logging" threads are about :-), the pilot in the right seat
can log Top Dog time if the sole manipulator in the right
seat 1) is not PIC (by agreement), 2) can't be PIC (not
instrument rated, no medical, etc.) *and* 3) is not a pilot
(has no pilot certificate of any type).


Nope. TopDog is not loggable. Only HOT is loggable. If you're Top Dog (and
the situation is right) you log HOT, not Top Dog.

That's my point. HOT is what is loggable, TopDog is what you are.

I also think you meant "left" the second time you said "right".

Further, the *and* makes little sense. I think you menat "or". After all, if
the person in question is not a pilot, he can't be PIC anyway. And in any
case, you are mixing up PIC with TopDog and HOT. The point of doing TopDog and
HOT is to get away from the "PIC" word and express the same idea in a less
ambiguous context.

If the left seat person is not a pilot, OR isn't Top Dog, then the right seat
person has to be Top Dog. (that is, assuming there are only two dogs involved
But Top Dog doesn't get logged. Only HOT gets logged. Sometimes the Top
Dog can log HOT.

There can only be one Top Dog. However, in some cases both can log HOT. In
some cases, nobody can log HOT (something I find bizzare, but then again, this
is the FAA). But nobody ever logs Top Dog.

Jose

No, he meant what he wrote. Despite what we all think we
understand about the logging regs for acting as PIC, there
is an interpretation from the FAA that seems to say that if
there is only one pilot in the plane, that pilot can log
PIC time even if he or she allows someone else to manipulate
the controls. The interpretation seems to be clearly in
conflict with the wording of the FARs, but it is out there
and was posted here a number of months ago.

--
David Rind

No, he meant what he wrote. Despite what we all think we
understand about the logging regs for acting as PIC, there
is an interpretation from the FAA that seems to say that if
there is only one pilot in the plane, that pilot can log
PIC time even if he or she allows someone else to manipulate
the controls. The interpretation seems to be clearly in
conflict with the wording of the FARs, but it is out there
and was posted here a number of months ago.


That would be a rare case where the FAA is making sense. Of course it only
does that by contradicting itself.

What you are describing is a pilot in one seat (say the right one), a non pilot
in the other seat, and no other dogs. Only the pilot can be Top Dog. The
non-pilot has hands-on-time but can't log it because he's not a pilot. Only
HOT can be logged - Top Dog is never logged. So, in this case the FARs say
nobody gets to log HOT, but the FAA says the pilot can log HOT.

The latter makes sense.

You take a non-pilot friend for a flight, you let him act as a human autopilot,
you log the time.

Jose

--
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