The situation you described (almost) was SOP at a flight school in the
Houston area. The specific situation was a hooded pilot in the left
seat of a Seminole flying instruments and logging PIC (as sole
manipulator) and dual received, another pilot in the right seat
watching for traffic and acting as PIC and logging it, and a CFII/MEI
in the back seat giving instrument dual and logging PIC and dual
given.

They did it this way for years. Nobody was busted, nobody lost his
logged time - but once it got out, they stopped doing it.

It's not all that gray an area:
91.109 (a) No person may operate a civil aircraft (except a manned
free balloon) that is being used for flight instruction unless that
aircraft has fully functioning dual controls.

It doesn't actually say that the instructor must sit at the other
control seat, but it's tough to argue that this wasn't the intent of
the regulation.

Michael

wrote in message ...
I've got a question regarding CFI's logging instruction time that I can't seem
to find in the FAR's. Basically, what constitutes "instruction" for a CFI of a rated
pilot? Aside from primary training or non-category/class rated pilots, the CFI can
provide simply instruction while flying. Here's an example situation with three
people in a high-performance/complex airplane:
#1 PPSEL w/o high-perf/complex endorsement flies left-seat
#2 PPSEL w/ high-perf/complex rating acting as PIC in right-seat
#3 CFI in back providing instruction to #1 regarding high-perf/complex endorsement.

Although it might seem a bit artificial, there are a number of
*insurance-related* reasons why this would be a good situation (if, for instance, #2
is named, but #1 and #3 are not). If all parties involved are willing to agree to
their responsibility (#2 acting PIC, #3 endorsing without flying right-seat, etc),
this doesn't seem to violate and FAA regulations that I can see. Of course, this all
goes under the category of, "if you don't have a problem, we have no problems... but
if there's a problem, we'll find a problem."

Where are the regulations/guidelines for CFI's acting/logging dual
instruction? I have even recently heard that a new ruling specifies that a CFI
providing instruction does not even require a 2nd-class medical since they are not
being paid as a pilot?

Hopefully I haven't kicked a hornet's nest WRT time logging here...

-Cory