Originally Posted by JohnBurke

It boggles the mind that people can be a professional in the industry and still not understand the regulation. It really is dirt simple

Yes: if you're sole manipulator, you may log PIC.

Yes: if you log PIC while not the acting PIC, it may be met with distain or disapproval at both Part 121 and 135 operations, as well as many Part 91 operations.

Yes: your sole manipulator time at the controls of an aircraft for which you are rated may be logged as pilot in command time, and used toward the requirements of a certificate or rating that requires pilot in command time.

Yes: "rated" means category and class (and where appropriate, type). In your case, Airplane category, single engine land class. If you hold this as a category/class rating on your pilot certificate, and you're sole manipulator, you can log it as PIC.

Having said this: if you're not qualified as PIC in the aircraft and are not PIC under Part 135, other employers may view your decision to log PIC in the aircraft as a negative.

A regional may not care; if you're a warm body and meet the minimums, and don't have orange antennas growing out of your head, you'll probably get hired. By the time you've buried your past experience under a logbook or two, nobody will notice or care what you did in the first few hours of your career.

There's no "smoking gun." Read the damn regulation. It's quite clear.