Logging IF at night whilst flying in VMC? lol. Jesus.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority - Pilot Log Books
All flight time during which the aircraft was controlled solely by reference to instruments may be recorded in the instrument 'Flight' column:
a) Time above overcast or at night in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) is not counted as instrument flight;
b) In actual or simulated instrument conditions, only the pilot manipulating the controls or providing input to the auto-pilot may log all flight time as instrument flight;
c) A flight conducted on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan is not to be counted as instrument flight unless flying in IMC;
edit : Instead of waiting i'll see off the predictable response now. The above appears to have no legislative backing and has been stated prior to be 'at odds' with the legislative reality.
I agree that the regs, the CAO specifically avoids referencing class of flight (IFR/VFR) or even being in IMC. You can conduct 'instrument flight' if you are flying soley via reference to the instruments in situations where no external reference is available.
However, the conduct of 'instrument flight' is not what is up for debate, but rather what you can log. 40.1.0 - 10.9 addresses this and limits it specifically and relevantly to
flight in instrument conditions.
Before you jump up with 'ha!', 'flight in instrument conditions' is defined precisely nowhere in the regulations, be it CAR, CAO or even AIP.
Be that there is no specific definition to link it to 'instrument flight' and that there are specific instructions issued by CASA as shown above I think you'd be an optimistic man should you find yourself in front of a magistrate or relevant authority to claim that you had every right to log instrument flight in visual conditions.
I generally take the safe view. Having four figure cmd hours in a Metro flying in the middle of the night, by some arguments here I could log nearly 90% of my flight time as IF.
I find that scenario ridiculous and would expect the same reaction from any potential employer.