Now the rubgy's over I can elaborate (and I have learnt a bit finding this out too!)
SWH g'day! Still on cloud 9?
That does not restrict one from logging IF time on a black horizonless night. The reg CAO 40.1.10.9 reads (my bolding):
Instrument flight time may be logged by the pilot monitoring or providing input to the autopilot/auto-stabilisation equipment when it is engaged or by the pilot manually manipulating the controls when the aircraft is flown by reference to instruments under either actual or simulated instrument flight conditions.
This actual instument time defined in the CARs as:
instrument flight time means flight time during which a person is flying an aircraft solely by reference to instruments and without external reference points.
Further (CAR definitions)
I.M.C. is the symbol used to designate meteorological conditions other than those designated by the symbol “V.M.C.”.
(Refer to CAR 172 and references for VMC distances).
So (and this will be of interest to VH-ABC above)
If you are IMC you cannot automatically log IF time as you may not be in cloud!
Picking your way at full tilt between the towering Cus on descent (love doin' that!
) is technically IMC.
You need to be poling be reference to the instruments to log it. Whether you are in the middle of a cloud, have foggles on or it's a black black night onroute back from a minesite in the desert, you can log I.F.
This diversion deserves a thread of its own!
CS
