There are going to be instructors (and pilots) that do the right thing and there are going to be instructors (and pilots) that do the wrong thing. The instructor in the back logging PIC time is doing the wrong thing no matter how you slice it. It is not "professional."

Will it come back to haunt him?

Probably not.

Is it legal?

Maybe no, maybe yes, but doubtful!

It is not the intention of the regulation to log time while sitting in the back if you are the second flight instrutor but I've known pilots who flew through a wisp of a cloud and logged it as 1 hour IMC. What can you do?

The only thing you can do is control your own personal actions. Log the time you fly...honestly. THEN, when you go to the interview, you can say that you flew the hours that you said you flew and be proud of it. Stop worrying about the other guy. Worry about yourself and try to live within the FAR's as best you can. That is all anyone can ask.

To Your Flying Success...

Good point cospilot about the itty bitty little cloud turned into 1 hour actual. I have seen a lot of that as well. BoilerUp you mentioned that I could write chief counsel for a ruling. How would I go about doing this?

I'll bite on the definition of authorized instructor. In the OP's scenario, who signed the student's logbook? I bet the MEI up front did. Now using some common sense, I would guess no one has a flight that was endorsed by two CFIs and I doubt any of us who have a CFI would a.) see the need to have two instructors sign for one flight or b.) actually be willing to sign for a flight after someone else put their name and number there.

My conclusion is that if you wouldn't be willing to sign for the student, or don't sign the student's logbook stating that you did give them instruction, you shouldn't log it in your own logbook.

looks like this was discussed a couple years ago elsewhere:


Logging dual given from backseat - Jetcareers