Originally Posted by
HectorD
Stupid question but lets say there is a dense cloud layer at 6,000-8,000ft. Anything above or below those altitudes is clear VFR. I know that as a VFR pilot, I cannot deliberately fly into clouds but what if you are on a IFR flightplan? could you request those altitudes and log some actual instrument flight time since you wouldn't be able to see anything? would that even be legal?
Sure, I used to do it with students all the time.
As far as logging instrument time for employment purposes....
While it makes sense that dark-night-over-water or other no-horizon conditions should be loggable, not everyone in aviation sees it that way. The gold-standard for instrument time is visible moisture...
Generally, an employer will expect you to have about 10% of your total time as actual. If you have much more than that, they might poke around your logbook and ask you why.
There might be a perfectly legit explanation (Wx in your geographic area), but if you claim non-traditional instrument time, you might get sent packing at an interview. It also not unheard of for an interviewer to pull up old Area Forecast if you log suspicious instrument time. If you logged instrument time on a night flight from PSP-PHX based on night-over-desert but the AF said Severe Clear, you will be in trouble.
For the military guys, the airlines will not consider it misrepresentation if you follow military rules and traditions when logging time...as long as all the other military folks do it the same way. But read their requirements carefully, you will probably have to make some adjustments to your times when filling out airline apps.