Originally Posted by
yeargab
For the younger AF folks you should always log actual instrument in a sim while in IMC. Sim Ins (block 32) is for simulated instrument conditions ie. you’re flying in VMC and wearing a hood.
Yes, the current 11-401 does allow INST time to be logged in "an accredited flight simulator or flight training device". I chased the AFI references down the rabbit hole a bit and couldn't find a list of which sims or FTDs were accredited.
Regarding what you quoted from my earlier post, I can't speak for the actual verbiage in 11-401 in whatever editions were available between 1998 and 2010, but of the 150-ish hours of F-15E WST time in my ARMS records, exactly two of the entries credited under INST and all of the rest was credited under SIM INST. Hard to believe that the ARMS folks would have been wrong the vast majority of the time; it is more likely that either 11-401 changed between then and now, or the F-15E WST was not an accredited simulator (non-moving with no visual, so not even a Level C equivalent).
That being said, one of the main points of this thread is OP's question, though, is "how do I explain this to the airlines?". 14 CFR doesn't allow "actual instrument" time to be logged in a sim, regardless of the fidelity of that sim. If your audience for your logbook is an airline application, it would be wise to understand this difference.
Personally, I logged military experience in my personal logbook using as close to the civilian definitions (or the "airline definitions", as the case may be) as I could for ease of translation to an airline app or discussion in an interview room. Although, as I've posted many times, unless you do substantial GA flying outside of the military or are so close to the minimum flight times that you need to, it ultimately doesn't seem worth it to even bring anything besides your ARMS reports to an airline interview anyway.