Originally Posted by
USMCFLYR
Back when I was flying GA - I thought I remembered signing for the aircraft too from the flight school. Is this not common? Did I remember wrong? How is this handled in your experience now? In this case - the private pilot who signed for the C-152 would fit the bill as you describe above. So if the safety pilot wanted to log that time as PIC then he would need to be the one to sign the plane out. Correct?
Essentially correct but not necessarily.
Under the regs and the official interpretations, in order to log PIC as a safety pilot, you need to be acting as PIC - be the one ultimately responsible for the flight.
That means a lot of things, some of which have nothing to do with FARs. For example, if the airplane is owned by Pilot A and he has insurance that requires the PIC to have a certain amount of time in type, he's probably not going to allow his safety pilot, who doesn't have enough time, to act as PIC and potentially void the insurance.
The flight school situation depends. Assume two pilots, both members of the flight school/FBO fully qualified to act as PIC under both the FARs and the school's policies.
The flight school may have a policy that only the member who signs for the airplane may act as PIC, in which case your supposition would be correct.
But it's probably more likely that the school's wants help its members build PIC time and has a policy that allows any member-pilot who would be authorized to sign for the airplane, to act as PIC in it no matter who signs it out.
It's a matter of there being more variation and flexibility in parts of the civilian world.