BlueLine
LASORS page 52 Item J
Pilot undergoing any form of flight test may log P1S for successful test, signed by P1 to be valid.
There is nothing that says it must be a CAA Flight test. A check out is a form of test and meets the description. If the instructor considers that you have passed the club check you can log P1S. I and many others, have done it for years with no objection.
Just because you have done it for many years doesn't make it right.
Just becuase no-one complained doesn't make it right.
I can think of a number of instances where pilots have flown without valid licences for years without anyone raising objectsions...were they right? Of course not...
I believe your interpretation is a bending of the rules....and I believe you are stretching the term 'flight test' beyond its recognised meaning.
Club checks are not flight tests; the biennial flight with an instructor is NOT a flight test...why? because the rules for revalidation merely require a 'dual flight with a flight instructor' - not a test - if it really were a test then it would require an examiner.
Lets face it - unless you are flying with an examiner its not really a flight test is it? Come on....it has to be a flight test as recognised by the authority - not because some instructor says its a flight test - if you interpret it like that then you need to prove your authority to make the descision about what is or isn't a flight test - certainly being an instructor does NOT confer such a privilege on us.
If you take this to its logical conclusion it means that in group aircraft a PPL doing a 'club/group check' on another PPL could call it a flight test and one log PIC and the other PIC US....which is most certainly NOT allowed.
Indeed if you read further on you can see really what the CAA are getting at...
LASORS page 54....
'Flight Time as PIC US, apart from as specifically provided for under Case J above, will only be allowable for the holder of a PPL subject to the terms of a prior agreement with the CAA.'.
Which kinda shows how the CAA are getting fed up with PIC US being logged by PPLs because this is not included in JAR IEM FCL 1.080.
As I said - no-one I know has this prior agreement.
With regard to the biennial flight with an instructor...lets examine that AIC shall we...
127(W378)/99
Single Engine Piston Aeroplane Class Rating Content of the Dual Flight with a Flight Instructor
Aha....notice the wording 'DUAL FLIGHT with a Flight Instructor'.
Reading further on....
1.3 b (ii) complete a training flight of at least 1 hours duration ...blah blah....This flight may be replaced by any other proficiency check or skill test for a class or type rating or by a flight test for an IMC rating.
Again its getting quite clear such a flight is NOT a flight test...although it talks about signing the log book if a satisfactory standard is reached it is VERY CAREFUL to indicate that this is not a flight test....Indeed when did a flight test allow for instruction to be carried out until a satisfactory standard was achieved?
Like I said - I clarified the situation with the CAA themselves. Feel free to do so if you wish...but anyone flying with me where I am in my capacity as an instructor, check ride or not, I log P1 and they log DUAL (P U/T). Thats my advice - if they choose to do otherwise then that is up to them but my nose is clean and I advised them in such a way that there is no doubt that I am operating within the rules. If you operate such that they log PIC U/S then you operating based on an interpretation which may be right or wrong....I know which side of the line I like to operate on.
As an interesting point - if an accident occured on such a flight - who do you think theyll be dragging through the mire? Do you really think that saying 'well the other pilot was P1' will in anyway mean you avoid responsibility? No. 'Well he was PIC US'...it just becomes meaningless...
And thats how I reason P1...if the buck stops with me - I log P1. If I will be held accountable for the flight...I log P1. Because that is precisely what being 'PIC' is. Moving on from that - you can see from my reasoning above why I therefore say the other pilot is to log DUAL or PUT.