I have said to many, many, pilots who are/were about to embark on the rocky road known as "hour building" that if, as so many do, they fly with another pilot to "help share the costs" then the BIG question is not neccessarily 'who is the handling pilot' - but "Who is Pilot In Command".
ONE person must be designated as PIC (at any given portion of the flight) - and he/she must be able to a) assume all the responsibilities of the commander and, b) carry the can for the error if something goes wrong.
I can think of no more confusing an issue than two pilots arguing (in court?) about who permitted the aircraft to enter controlled airspace, who broke rule 5, who didn't do enough carburettor heat applications in the cruise, who was actually handling the aircraft during the forced landing when one pilot chose one field and the other pilot wanted somewhere else.
If you are flying towards the string of lights that are bearly visible in the haze - who decides if it is runway lighting or street lighting (aasuming the m3 still does not have a localiser).
It doesn't answer the question above...but the main question should be "Who is the pilot in command?"
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