Logging time
Although I am aware of a number of pilots that have logged just about everything they have seen as well as actually done, the most outrageous rort of the concept of logging one's own hours that I ever saw was a pilot who managed to wangle their way onto any spare seat in any charter going round, and log everything, regardless of whether they were at a control seat, had a set of duals installed, were awake or not.
This person commenced an instructor rating with what I believe to be around 175 hours of actual hands on stick time, with approximately 50 as PIC. No doubt the fiction would have been apparent to anybody actually conducting a rating, but whether money spoke sufficiently I do not know, as I have managed to successfully remove myself from that particular loop.
To attempt to be helpful with what we should be doing, my reading of the legislation is that so long as one actually intends to take flight, one can log engine start to engine stop. If a maintenance ground run is performed, the activity cannot be logged as flight time as the intention was not to slip the surly bonds. If an aircraft fails a pre takeoff check and the flight is scrubbed after start, the time can be logged as the intention was to become airborne.
Anybody care to differ? And before the slinging begins, Yes, I have logged time using the "Log anything I actually did" method. I reviewed the legislation while studying for an ATPL exam I haven't done yet and felt more than a tinge of embarrassment. No I'm not taking it out as I believed it so at the time and what's done is done. It makes up about 2 hours for me so it's not as significant for me as others.