i think you are a little confused
no big deal - i'll help you out
I'm sure you heard of Rod Machado and i'm sure you heard of AOPA. They both say it the way i say it. You saying we, and the FARs, are wrong?
You say you can quote it in the fars - please do, because so can i.
When i say "legal PIC" i mean the designated PIC who is responsible for the flight. The Fars allow the following people to log PIC time:
- sole occupant of aircraft (duh)
- sole manipulator of (controls) aircraft
- responsible pilot - legal PIC
legal PIC can be designated at any point before or during the flight - and can be changed. This is why flight instructors can log PIC. They are responsible for the flight, but the student is the manipulator of the controls - so both get to log PIC (if infact the student already has a PPL license). If the Flight instructor does not have a medical, he can still teach (only in VMC and people with PPL or better), but he can't log PIC because he can't be person legaly in command.
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Lets start from the beginning.
Situation 1:
Left Seat(LS) is hood guy with basic PPL.
Right Seat (RS) is safety pilot with basic PPL.
LS pilot is designated PIC and is sole manipulator of controls.
RS pilot is only safety pilot.
In this case, only the LS pilot may log PIC while the RS is acting as a REQUIRED FLIGHT crew member (fars say that he is required under simulated instrument so he is a "required flight crew member"), he may only got SIC. If you look in the fars under "SIC logging", you can read that any required flight crew member, who is not any of the 3 examples above, may log SIC.
Situation 2:
LS is hood guy with basic PPL.
RS is safety pilot with basic PPL.
LS is only sole manipulator of controls.
RS is Designated PIC and is also the safety Pilot.
In this case, LS gets to log PIC because he is one of the 3 examples above, and the RS gets to log PIC because he is also one of the 3 above.
Understand? This is what has been published in AOPA and this is what Rod Machodo told me in an e-mail after i asked him the same thing. And anybody with a FAR/AIM can read this in the book - mind you, i did even before i got AOPA flight mag and before i asked Rod.