Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Logging PIC Time as a Commercial Pilot, Flying with a CFI

Asked by: 1843 views , , , , , , ,
FAA Regulations

Been reading 61.51 ad nauseum and my head hurts.

I hold a commercial instrument rating in both single and multi engine airplanes as well as helicopters. When flying a SEL (Cessna 172), under what circumstances may I log PIC time when flying with a CFI on board with me, and in what way (if any) must the logbook be signed (and/or annotated with remarks) by the CFI? And is this always logged as dual?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Nov 14, 2022

    Any time you are the sole manipulator of the controls in an aircraft you are rated in, you may log PIC in accordance with 61.51(e)(1)(i). If the instructor is providing training, you would also log dual received 61.51(h). To log PIC when you are rated (ASEL or AMEL or helicopter) and the sole manipulator of the controls. Either you or the instructor needs to be qualified to act as PIC, but it the instructor is acting as PIC, you don’t need to be current, have endorsements such high performance, nor do you need to hold a medical in order to log PIC as the logging regulation only requires you to be rated and the sole manipulator of the controls and nothing else.

    The instructor would only endorse your logbook if they were providing training. If they were a passenger, the instructor would not log anything. If the instructor was just a safety pilot and not providing any training, they could log either second in command or PIC for the time they were the safety pilot if it was agreed that they were acting as PIC.

    +3 Votes Thumb up 3 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Mark Kolber on Nov 18, 2022

    As John’s post indicates, the Universal Rule of Logging Flight time (61.51) does not make a distinction among recreational, private, commercial, and ATP when it comes to,logging PIC flight time as sole manipulator.

    Where I see this question raised often is in the 135 and 141 contexts where an employer is looking for “acting” PIC time rather than PIC flight time per the FAA rules. But even then, that’s a distinction between data collection and data presentation,

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.