Are you sure about the logging hours? My husband, his dad and brother have debated it back and forth for a long time. In the end the decided no. Is there a FARS we can check this with that anyone knows of?
Technically my husband can't log PIC time in his dad's plane anyway. Due to the partnership and insurance stuff, his dad or one of his partners ALWAYS has to be in the plane and they always have to log the PIC.
It's all in 61.51 and it's all pretty simple and straight forward but lots of people like to pretend that there is language in those regs which simply isn't there.
The first and most important thing he needs to understand is that there is a difference between acting as PIC and being able to log PIC. Those two concepts are defined by separate independent regs. Just because you're acting as PIC doesn't always mean you can log it and just because you're able to log PIC doesn't always mean you can act as PIC.
So the big kicker that really gets everyones panties in a bunch is going to be 61.51(e)(i)
It reads as follows:
(i) Is the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which the pilot is rated or has privileges;
Now the first part of this is very simple. You may log PIC time for any time during which you are the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft which you are rated. If the line stopped there, most of the debate about this issue would go away because you can't get any simpler than that. If you're rated in the aircraft, you can log it. And we need to remember that 'rated' means category and class of aircraft as in single engine land airplane. Tailwheel, complex and high performance are all endorsements, not ratings.
So right there this tells us, that if we hold a pilot certificate which says ASEL on the back and we're at the controls in an single engine land airplane, then we can log that time. This is true regardless of whether we have a medical or BFR or any endorsements. If we're at the controls, we can log it. But we all know that every flight needs a pilot who is qualified to act as PIC on board. That's where the medical, BFR and endorsements enter into the game. Go up solo in a tailwheel airplane without a tailwheel endorsement in a logbook somewhere and you're flying illegally.
So in your husbands situation, he's sitting in one seat with his mitts on the controls and his father is sitting in the other seat with his arms folded. His father is qualified to act as PIC so the flight is legal and you husband is sole manipulator so he can log it, but his father, legally speaking, cannot. Now I've never heard of an insurance policy which spells out who can and cannot log what. It's possible I suppose but I'd want to see the language of the policy myself before I believed it.
Ah but wait, there's a little more. Right now if you listen real hard, you can hear the sound of all the nay sayers banging on their desks in frustration and yelling that I forgot about last three words of 61.51(e)(i). Don't worry, I didn't forget. I was just saving that part for last.
So the last three words of the reg quoted above read 'or has privileges'. There is a very large and very vocal group of people who believe that the or has privileges line means that you also need endorsements in order to log PIC time. There are two reasons why that belief is incorrect. The first reason is that if that were true, it would read '
and has privileges'. The FAA may have their heads up their butts most of the time but they are always real careful about the use of the words 'and' and 'or' when they write regs. It is no accident that they used the word 'or' in that line. And that leads us to reason number two. The second reason all those folks are incorrect is that the FAA's legal counsel has said via official letters of interpretation that 'or has privileges' refers to sport pilot certs which are issued whiteout any kind of airplane rating; i.e. they don't say ASEL on them. Or has privileges has nothing to do with tailwheel endorsements. In so may words, it means 'oh yeah and sport pilots can do it to as long as they're flying a plane they hold privileges for'.
So that's it. if you read 61.31, that will tell you all about endorsements required for tailwheel and high performance and complex airplanes. But you'll note that in each of those regs, they use the word
act. Those regs tell use what we need to do in order to get qualified to act as PIC. But as we said earlier, acting as PIC and being able to log PIC are two separate and somewhat independent things.
Also, we just recently purchased a partnership in a RV-4 that is tailwheel. It will take a couple years to complete the plane but the longer you have your endorsement, the cheaper the insurance on the plane. Cheaper insurance is a GOOD thing!!
