I'm going to throw a wrench in your scenario for more definitive answers. If I were taxiing, taking off, landing, etc.. the plane for the 3.0, and my friend then put on a hood and became the sole manipulator of the controls for 2.3, I would log 3.0 for everything. He/she would be the one to log 2.3. Now if he/she were doing the ground and pre-hood stuff then I agree 2.3 would be the maximum you could log. Kind of the reverse of the scenario I think you are putting forward. And as I am about to state,
Acrofox is completely correct about the SIC time with one way of logging things but I would never do it that way because it is stupid, not saying you are stupid at all
Acrofox, it just shows the flaws in the FAA's logic. Anyways, I digress and the evidence and hopefully less rambling is below in the FAA interpretation as of Dec 1, 2009. I left out a bunch of other scenarios and the beginning with the general definition of XC but my point is here:
In your first scenario, Pilot A and Pilot B, who hold private pilot certificates and ratings
appropriate to the aircraft, take a flight. Pilot A acts as the pilot-in-command (PIC). During
a portion of the flight, Pilot B acts as the safety pilot and second-in-command (SIC) while
Pilot A operates in simulated instrument flight. You ask whether Pilot B may log SIC
and/or cross-country time for the portion of the flight during which Pilot B acts as safety
pilot.
Section 61.51 (f) governs the logging of SIC time and states, in relevant part, that a person
may log SIC time only for that flight time during which that person holds the appropriate
ratings for aircraft being flown and "more than one pilot is required under the type
certification of the aircraft or the regulations under which the flight is being conducted."
When a pilot is operating an aircraft in simulated instrument flight, 14 C.F.R. § 91.109(b), in
relevant part, requires that a safety pilot, who possesses at least a private pilot certificate
with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft, occupy the other control seat.
Accordingly, Pilot B may log SIC time for the portion of the flight during which Pilot B acts
as safety pilot because Pilot B was a required flight crewmember for that portion of the
flight under § 91.109(b). The FAA previously has interpreted that a person acting as safety
pilot for a portion of a flight may not log cross-country time because that person is not a
required flight crewmember for the entire flight. See Legal Interpretation to Jeff Gebhart
(June 22,2009) (copy enclosed). Accordingly, Pilot B may not log cross-country time for
any portion of the flight.
The second scenario is similar to the first scenario except that Pilot A is the sole manipulator
of the controls and operates the aircraft in simulated instrument flight during a portion of the
flight. Pilot B acts as the PIC for the flight and as the safety pilot for the portion of the flight
during which Pilot A operates the aircraft in simulated instrument flight. You ask whether
Pilot B may log PIC and/or cross-country time for this flight.
According to the Gebhart interpretation, Pilot A may log PIC and cross-country time for the
entire flight. Pilot B may log PIC time for the portion ofthe flight during which Pilot A
operated in simulated instrument flight because Pilot B was a required flight crewmember
while acting as the safety pilot, but Pilot B may not log cross-country time for any portion of
the flight because Pilot B was not a required flight crewmember for the entire flight.
So, if you accept responsibility as SIC while the other guy is under the hood being sole manipulator of the controls and acting as PIC you can only log SIC. Which again, to
Acrofox is not to be offensive in any way, but that is just plain stupid as I am assuming you are both trying to log time and get as much PIC as you can. Scenario 2 allows you to do that by acting as PIC when safety pilot. And if you do it my way as previously stated you can log PIC for the whole flight instead of the 2.3 your friend was under the hood, but that is a deal between you and whoever is paying for the flight and so on. Semantics.
Now I'm going to rant about the XC logging. As you can see above, this FAA interpretation will not allow the safety pilot to log XC in either of these scenarios yet they have said you can either be PIC or SIC, whichever responsibility you decide to take. You obviously should have been at your crew station watching for traffic and ready to act, especially if you were acting as PIC, but you still can't log the time! You basically did the XC too, granted maybe it was a 6 hour XC and you only acted as PIC safety pilot for the 2.3 hours in the middle and really didn't participate in the XC.
I digress again. It is what it is. Careers progress. The more you sit in that flight crew member seat and the more experience you get, the better pilot you will be regardless on whether you can log it. This is way too long for any JCer to read for fun. Kuddos to the curious minds!
