On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 09:55:18 -0800, Mark Hansen
wrote:

On 12/14/2005 09:40, Peter Clark wrote:

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 09:01:37 -0800, Mark Hansen
wrote:

On 12/14/2005 08:48, wrote:

Below is a copy of an FAA Chief Counsel written opinion:

How does answer the question set forth by the original poster?
His question was about logging x-country time, which the referenced
legal interpretation doesn't touch.

It does say:

The two pilots may, however, agree prior to initiating the flight that
the safety pilot will be the PIC responsible for the operation and
safety of the aircraft during the flight. If this is done, then the
safety pilot may log all the flight time as PIC time in accordance with
FAR 1.1 and the pilot under the hood may log, concurrently, all of the
flight time during which he is the sole manipulator of the controls as
PIC time in accordance with FAR 61.51(c)(2)(i).

So, if the flight is XC, wouldn't this allow both (assuming the prior
PF/PNF/ultimate safety condition is met) to log both PIC and XC (but
no landings for PNF) time?

So what about the time when the left-seat pilot is not under the hood.
It sounds to me like they are making an exception for this case. Can
the safety pilot be PIC even while the left-seat pilot is not under
the hood? ... seems like a stretch to me.

Plain-text: "If this is done, then the safety pilot may log all the
flight time as PIC time in accordance with FAR 1.1". So, as someone
else pointed out, PNF really isn't a "safety pilot" per-se, but is
more in that they accept ultimate responsibility for the flight and
can thus log *all* the flight time. Otherwise, they would just log
SIC for the time the PF is under the hood.