Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
It seems a moderator has already extinguished comments addressing this, but in short, a pilot flying a charter isn't liable for taxes based on the cost of the airplane: he logs the time, but he's taxed on his wages. The flight instructor logs the time, but isn't taxed on the rental cost of the airplane: he's taxed on his income for providing instruction or pilot services.
The question of one who isn't accepting a wage, but logging the time doesn't place the flight time in a different light so far as whether it's a wage. The FAA certainly considers the logging of flight time as compensation, but the Federal Aviation Regulation is not the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and the FAA's view doesn't necessarily impose a tax burden.
Federal Acquisition Regs have nothing to do with individual income or taxes, that has to do with the government buying stuff.
Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
Two people may log pilot in command. A flight instructor, acting as an authorized instructor, may log that time spent acting as an authorized instructor as pilot in command time. There is no requirement that the instructor be teaching stalls or steep turns. The instructor may be teaching ground reference in orbiting a crash scene while looking for traffic, or something along those lines, too. That said, the FAA does not view simply riding along as instruction: you must be giving instruction or acting as an authorized instructor, to log the time. Simply being present and holding a flight instructor certificate is insufficient.
Of course there are many legit purposes for dual instruction other than certs and ratings... currency, proficiency, type fam, area fam, probably even mission fam in this case. But the FAA does not allow "indefinite" dual instruction for no good reason other than to allow two people to log the same flight time. Two instructors might do this on a XC with a rented plane and nobody would ever know. But if you're logging dual (received or given) for the same commercial operation day in, day out, that would raise eyebrows. And it's not legal, once you've exhausted reasonable purpose of instruction.
More legal to do safety pilot, since nobody would claim there's such a thing as too much instrument time, but there are limitations to that as well, and you really can't do it on traffic watch.