It's basivcally dumping dry ice pellets into clouds to stimulate rainfall. I think it would be more common in potentially dry agricultural areas, and less common in the Pacific Northwest...

Your ME time does not have to be PIC, but unless you get legitimate work as a SIC in a job where the FAA requires an SIC, your entry-level ME time will likely be all PIC. These are a few points to keep in mind...

1) Safety Pilot Time: This is very commonly utilized, and most airlines are OK with it (I have heard rumors in the past of airlines only giving half-credit for SP time, but I do not know of any that does this today). Your safety pilot time should be logged as PIC, assuming you are current and have a medical.

2) MEI dual-given: In order to log dual-given/received there must be some LEGITIMATE training event conducted. Sometimes two MEI's will go on a long x-country, and take turns giving each other dual on the legs...this does not make sense, and is not legal (they should have just done safety pilot). Also a low-time pilot will sometimes go for "airplane rides" in a twin and let the owner/operator give them dual...you could get away with this once or twice as aircraft or route fam training, but you could not do it every week. These would legit purposes (in my opinion) for conducting ME dual:
- Required training for a ME rating or cert (you might be able to throw in a x-country for a ME add-on, but probably not 50 hours worth).
- BFR, IPC, instrument currency, club checkout, insurance checkout.
- Aircraft familiarization (ten hours in type seems reasonable, maybe more if required by insurance).
- Area/Route familiarization (but if you do the same route 50 times, that's pushing it).


3) SIC time: There are only two circumstances under which this can be logged. BEWARE: Some folks will try to sell you "SIC" time in a twin which only requires one pilot. This is an AIRPLANE RIDE, not flight time of ANY sort...don't fall for this scam, go rent a seminole instead and log real ME. The only times you cam log SIC:
- The airplane type cert requires an SIC (this will likely also require special training for the SIC, but not usually a full type rating).
- The operator's FAA certificate (usually 135) requires an SIC even though the airplane type only requires one pilot. This is legit, but you will need to complete a 135 checkride. NOTE: Some operators may use a second pilot due to insurance requirements, not FAA requirements...this does NOT constitute a legal basis for SIC.
Note: Some airplanes are type certified for either single or dual-pilot operations...in this case it is always the pilot's choice, so you can legally do two pilots ops just because you want to, even if the PIC is rated for single-pilot.