Does approach shot from right seat count for currency?

BlueOrGraySkies

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BlueOrGraySkies
Next week my cousin is taking me for a joyride in a Piper Cherokee. He just finished his PPL (no IR for him yet), and I'm going along mostly for fun but also as his safety pilot. He'll be PIC, I'll sit right seat. I have my IRA.

He'll do most of the flying, but if I shoot an approach or two with a vision limiting device during the flight, can I log those to count for keeping current with my IR? I guess I'm not sure if I have to be PIC for them to count.

Thanks for any guidance!
 
Assuming you’re current and don’t need an IPC, you are acting PIC as SP and sole manipulator PIC under the hood, it all counts.
 
Have you found anything to say it isn’t loggable, or that the approach must be from the left seat? Probably not. It is legal and loggable.
 
IRA? Isn't that a form of retirement savings?
 
Have logged approaches from the right seat when flying as a co pilot. Might. Be hard in a Cherokee reading the gages.
 
Only on PoA would this question get 12 responses. I predict 3 pages at a minimum.

The answer is yes. That is all.
 
When the OP is under the hood shooting the approach, the cousin will be the Safety Pilot, not the OP.

Unless they agreed upon before the flight that the OP is the acting PIC while the cousin is under the hood.
 
When the OP is under the hood shooting the approach, the cousin will be the Safety Pilot, not the OP.
I should have said “with or as” a safety pilot. The regulations to study are the same. Logging PIC, being PIC, and logging approaches are the three topics that both of the required crew members in a simulated IMC situation need to understand.
 
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I should have said “with or as” a safety pilot. The regulations to study are the same. Logging PIC, being PIC, and logging approaches are the three topics that both of the required crew members in a simulated IMC situation need to understand.
Agreed.

But as long as we're getting into the weeds to find tiny details to quibble about, although the FAA chooses to treat it that way for logging purposes, they might not both really be required ;)
 
Thanks everybody! I will definitely log any approaches that I shoot... from either seat. Took a flight today and shot five approaches... that with the one I shot last week has me current for another six months. Proficient is another story...
 
When the OP is under the hood shooting the approach, the cousin will be the Safety Pilot, not the OP.

Unless they agreed up on before the flight that the OP is the acting PIC while the cousin is under the hood.
So if they've agreed to that, then the cousin will not be safety pilot when the OP is under the hood? Then who would be the safety pilot?
 
You can log the approach. You can log the time as PIC as the sole manipulator of the controls. There is no requirement for you to be ACTING as the PIC to log the approach, or to be able to log it as PIC time.

If the safety pilot is ACTING as PIC, then they can log PIC time as well since they are acting as PIC while serving as a required crew member (since a safety pilot is required under the circumstance you're describing, which is being under the hood while operating VFR).

It's surprising that this comes up since this has been discussed many times over the last.....*checks watch* let's see it's 9:37am EST....carry the two.......ten to fifteen years. :)
 
You can log the approach. You can log the time as PIC as the sole manipulator of the controls. There is no requirement for you to be ACTING as the PIC to log the approach, or to be able to log it as PIC time.

If the safety pilot is ACTING as PIC, then they can log PIC time as well since they are acting as PIC while serving as a required crew member (since a safety pilot is required under the circumstance you're describing, which is being under the hood while operating VFR).

It's surprising that this comes up since this has been discussed many times over the last.....*checks watch* let's see it's 9:37am EST....carry the two.......ten to fifteen years. :)
Well, it hasn't come up again in the past 3 hours, so maybe this will be the last time.

Voice over begins: It was not the last time.
 
Actually, with some modern electronic devices, you have even have a PFD on the right for cheap.

We did this on Sunday with my plane. Mounted an iPad Mine with a suction cup mount, BT connected to my GTN-650, theu to the GTX-345, which has an AHRS. ForeFlight to the instrument screen, and even gives synthetic vision. :)

A Sentry or Stratus or similar would be even better. May even consider getting a Garmin AERA 760.
 
So if they've agreed to that, then the cousin will not be safety pilot when the OP is under the hood? Then who would be the safety pilot?

Who is acting as PIC is not relevant to who is a safety pilot. An appropriately qualified pilot may be be both a safety pilot and the pilot acting as PIC. The OP said his cousin was going to be acting as PIC for the flight. When the OP was under the hood and the sole manipulator of the controls, the cousin would be both PIC and safety pilot. Both could log the time the OP was under the hood as PIC.
 
Who is acting as PIC is not relevant to who is a safety pilot. An appropriately qualified pilot may be be both a safety pilot and the pilot acting as PIC. The OP said his cousin was going to be acting as PIC for the flight. When the OP was under the hood and the sole manipulator of the controls, the cousin would be both PIC and safety pilot. Both could log the time the OP was under the hood as PIC.

Furthermore, there is no requirement for the cousin to be the PIC for the flight, as the OP is qualified to serve as PIC.

PIC is not determined by which seat you are sitting in. The OP could be PIC the entire flight, from the right seat.
 
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