logging SPIC hours as Instructor

[AZI93]

Greeting to you all,

I'm recently started my working as a flight instructor in one of the aviation academy where we have an Integrated ATPL program. During the VFR cross-country phase, the students usually fly this part as SPIC hours (Student Pilot In Command). Usually during the SPIC hours, we fly with the students only supervising them without influence or control the flight of the aircraft. My question is, how to log these hours from Instructor perspective. Is it allowed for me to log it as PIC and Instructor hour or only PIC? or is it just only logged as PIC?

I asked my colleagues about this matter and all of them were telling me to fill the SPIC exercises under both PIC and Instructor hours. They told me they are doing it in that way and even when they were submitting their records to the CAA to add extra privilege in their FI license it was always approved. I tried to search about this in EASA rules to stay away from any violation and what I found is the following under (AMC1 FCL.050 Recording of flight time) and it was stating the following:"Column 10: pilot function time:
(i) enter flight time as PIC, SPIC and PICUS as PIC;
(ii) all time recorded as SPIC or PICUS is countersigned by the aircraft PIC/FI in the ‘remarks’ (column 12);
(iii) instructor time should be recorded as appropriate and also entered as PIC."

There is nothing completely clear about it. So I would love to hear from you about this matter.

Thank you in advance!

[Level Attitude]

I asked my colleagues about this matter and all of them were telling me to fill the SPIC exercises under both PIC and Instructor hours.

Your colleagues are correct

You are the Aircraft Commander (you may take over control at any time) so you record your flight time as PIC.

A Student Pilot In Command can only be accompanied by an Instructor (see definition below, my bold and italics), so you must also have been acting as an Instructor and should, therefore, also record that you performed this function during the flight.

FCL.010 Definitions
‘Student pilot-in-command' (SPIC) means a student pilot acting as pilot-in-command on a flight with an instructor where the latter will only observe the student pilot and shall not influence or control the flight of the aircraft.

[AZI93]

Thank you for your feedback!

[what next]

When in doubt, just ask yourself: "Who is going to be held responsible if we do something stupid during this flight (e.g. bust some airspace)? Mr. SPIC or I?" The answer to this question will tell you what to write into your logbook…

[Whopity]

All of this should be clearly stated in the ATO's Operations Manual.

[Jhieminga]

I reckon the clue is in:

(iii) instructor time should be recorded as appropriate and also entered as PIC.

You're on board for a reason, so you're acting as an instructor instead of just a passenger. As it's an integrated program the student does not have a licence yet, so that's another reason for you to be PIC. One way to remember is that ALL flights during which you are acting in your instructor capacity are logged as both instructor time and PIC by you. Whether the student logs something as dual or as SPIC is up to the syllabus, the format of the course and the outcome of the flight. If you have to intervene in the process at any time during the flight, if you have to take over control for example, the flight cannot be logged as SPIC anymore and should revert to being a regular 'dual' flight for the student. In such a case the flight needs to be redone and if the outcome is up to standards, the student can then log this as originally intended. None of this changes what you log on your end.
The OPS manual should make this clear and if that is not the case, it could be the start of an interesting conversation about procedures at your ATO