The day a pilot becomes an instructor, their logbook changes direction: the dual column swaps sides. Time that was once dual received becomes dual given, and a set of logging questions appears that never troubled them as a student. Who logs pilot-in-command when the student does all the flying? What happens in cloud? What must be signed, and what must be kept? The rules answer all of it more cleanly than hangar debate suggests.
This is general educational information, not operational, legal, or regulatory advice. Rules differ by authority and change over time. Always verify against current official sources and follow your operator's approved procedures.
Dual given: the same flight from the other seat
Every training flight produces two mirrored records. The student logs dual received, the instruction they were given, as covered in our guide to logging solo and student time. The instructor logs the same time as dual given: flight training delivered. Over a career the column becomes a credential in its own right, the total that examiners, training organisations and employers read as your experience as a teacher, and it feeds requirements for senior instructional privileges. EASA's logbook format makes the mirror explicit: the standard AMC1 FCL.050 pilot function columns record PIC, co-pilot, dual and instructor time side by side, so a training flight fills the instructor column for one pilot and the dual column for the other.
Who logs PIC? Usually the instructor, and sometimes both
The instinctive answer, whoever is holding the controls, is wrong, because logging follows role, not hands. Under the FAA's 14 CFR 61.51(e), a certificated flight instructor may log pilot-in-command time for all flight time while serving as the authorised instructor, provided they are rated for the aircraft. The logic is responsibility: the instructor answers for the flight even while sitting on their hands, which is most of a good lesson. EASA reaches the same destination through AMC1 FCL.050: the holder of an instructor certificate may log as PIC the flight time in which they act as instructor.
The FAA adds a wrinkle that surprises people outside the system: on many training flights, two pilots properly log PIC at once. A pilot who already holds the appropriate rating for the aircraft, say a private pilot taking instrument training, logs PIC as the sole manipulator of the controls, while the instructor logs PIC as the authorised instructor. Different provisions, different roles, same flight, and both entries are correct. A pre-solo student is the contrast case: not yet rated, they log dual received only, and their command time starts with the solo entries an instructor has endorsed in advance. The wider question of how command time is assigned, including EASA ideas like PICUS, is covered in our guide to pilot function and logging roles.
Instrument time from the right seat
Instrument instruction has its own rule, and it is kinder to instructors than folklore says. Under 61.51(g), an authorised instructor may log instrument time when conducting instrument flight instruction in actual instrument conditions: teaching in real cloud counts as instrument time for the teacher, even though the student is flying. The boundary matters, though. A student practising under the hood in clear air is logging simulated instrument time; the instructor watching them is not in instrument conditions and logs no instrument time for it. Real IMC is the test, exactly as our guide to logging instrument time explains for pilots generally. Instruction delivered in simulators and other training devices follows the FSTD rules covered in logging simulator time, where the instructor's record is of instruction given rather than flight time flown.
The paperwork that comes with the job
Teaching adds duties no other logbook role carries. Under 14 CFR 61.189, an FAA instructor must sign the logbook of each person they give flight or ground training to, describing the training, and must keep their own record of endorsements: every solo endorsement, and every person recommended for a test or check, retained for at least 3 years. Those records are not ceremony; they are what stands behind a student's claimed training history if it is ever questioned, and behind the instructor's own recommendation rate.
There is also a workload ceiling with a fatigue rationale: 14 CFR 61.195 caps an instructor at 8 hours of flight training in any 24-consecutive-hour period. On the EASA side, instructors work within the training organisation's records system and certify the training delivered, with the CAA and other national authorities setting the detail; the UK CAA's licensing pages are the local reference, and ICAO Annex 1 supplies the international frame both systems build on.
A worked example
An instrument instructor and a private-pilot student fly a 1.5 hour training flight in an aircraft both are rated in. Forty minutes are in real cloud; the student is the sole manipulator throughout.
The student logs 1.5 total, 1.5 dual received, 1.5 PIC as the rated sole manipulator under 61.51(e), 0.7 actual instrument, and the instructor's signature closes the entry.
The instructor logs 1.5 total, 1.5 dual given, 1.5 PIC as the authorised instructor under 61.51(e), and 0.7 actual instrument for the instruction conducted in actual conditions under 61.51(g). They sign the student's logbook describing the lesson, and note in their own records that no endorsement was issued today. Nothing was double-counted: each pilot logged their own role in the same ninety minutes, exactly as the rules intend.
Common pitfalls
- Logging by hands instead of role. The instructor logs PIC for serving as instructor, however little they touch the controls.
- Missing the rated-in-the-aircraft condition. The FAA's instructor-logs-PIC rule applies only when the instructor is rated for the aircraft.
- Claiming instrument time for hood work. The instructor logs instrument time only for instruction in actual conditions; the student's simulated time is the student's alone.
- Treating dual given as a scratch column. It is the credential examiners and employers read as your instructional experience; keep it as carefully as PIC.
- Skipping the records. Signatures for training given, and 3 years of endorsement records, are regulatory duties, not courtesies.
- Forgetting the 8-in-24 limit. A full day of back-to-back students has a legal ceiling for good reason.
In Pilot EFB
Pilot EFB's electronic logbook carries a dual given category alongside your other times, and its EASA-format PDF export includes the instructor column the AMC1 FCL.050 layout expects, so instructional experience accumulates as its own honest total rather than a note in the remarks. It is a personal record: you enter the roles and times yourself, and you should reconcile them with the rule that applies to your licence and with any logbook your training organisation treats as official. Entries you have saved stay readable offline. Pilot EFB is offline-first and is not a certified or authority-approved electronic logbook, so treat it as your personal record and keep the signatures and endorsements where the rules require them.