Mark Hansen wrote:
Again ... the safety pilot is not acting as pilot in command. He is acting
as safety pilot only. He is little more than a passenger.

That's one way to look at it. Another perspective is that he's a required
crew member.

It's not entirely unreasonable for the insurance company (or the club) to
mandate that all required crew are club members.

Incidentally, the club requires that the pilot acting as PIC be a club
member, so that rules out the ability for the safety pilot to act as
PIC (even if they allowed non-club members to be safety pilot).

From an insurance and a risk management perspective, that sounds to me
like splitting hairs. It doesn't particularly make the flight safer for
the pilot under the hood to always be PIC, does it?

.... Alan
--
Alan Gerber
PP-ASEL
gerber AT panix DOT com