No, he meant what he wrote. Despite what we all think we
understand about the logging regs for acting as PIC, there
is an interpretation from the FAA that seems to say that if
there is only one pilot in the plane, that pilot can log
PIC time even if he or she allows someone else to manipulate
the controls. The interpretation seems to be clearly in
conflict with the wording of the FARs, but it is out there
and was posted here a number of months ago.


That would be a rare case where the FAA is making sense. Of course it only
does that by contradicting itself.

What you are describing is a pilot in one seat (say the right one), a non pilot
in the other seat, and no other dogs. Only the pilot can be Top Dog. The
non-pilot has hands-on-time but can't log it because he's not a pilot. Only
HOT can be logged - Top Dog is never logged. So, in this case the FARs say
nobody gets to log HOT, but the FAA says the pilot can log HOT.

The latter makes sense.

You take a non-pilot friend for a flight, you let him act as a human autopilot,
you log the time.

Jose

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