TMetzinger
Final Approach
Go back and log the PIC and complex time before you were endorsed, if you want. Your instructor was wrong.Let me point out that I encountered the same situation. I was not allowed to log PIC (since logging = acting as stated earlier) in the complex airplane until after the logbook endorsement.
This is what my endorsement says:
PIC - Complex Airplane: 61.31(e)
I certify that I have given ground and flight training in a complex airplane to [First name, MI, Last name] holder of pilot certificate# [certificate number] and find him/her procicient in the operation and systems of a complex airplane.
Signed Dated
CFI # Expiration
Now this could go one of two ways; either extremely obvious that you can only LOG pic once you're Endorsed for PIC complex aircraft, or incredibly vague and something should be worded or explained in a different manner.
Geez, there's an FAA counsel opinion in this and other threads that spells out that:
Logging and acting are two different things
Rated and endorsed are two different things
My commercial ride was with a DPE and Inspector - the fact that I had logged ALL my complex time as PIC was something they BOTH looked for (this was 2000) as they'd had to correct other student's logs and counsel their CFI's in the past. The only complex time I didn't log as PIC until the ride was the multi-engine time, because that is a RATING.
PS - you can log your student solo time as PIC... everyone agrees on that, don't they? (I stipulate that this was not always true).