Question about 61.129 night flight reqt

[nj-pilot]

Regarding the night flight requirement (61.129.a.3.iv): One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure

My question is - does this require a landing at an airport beyond 100 nm from origin? Can I just stay airborne, hit the 100 nm and 2 hour requirement, return to origin, and check the box?

 

[Brad Z]

Regarding the night flight requirement (61.129.a.3.iv): One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure

My question is - does this require a landing at an airport beyond 100 nm from origin? Can I just stay airborne, hit the 100 nm and 2 hour requirement, return to origin, and check the box?

No. Take a look at the 14 CFR 61.1(b) definition of Cross Country:

Cross-country time means -

(i) Except as provided in paragraphs (ii) through (vi) of this definition, time acquired during flight -

(A) Conducted by a person who holds a pilot certificate;

(B) Conducted in an aircraft;

(C) That includes a landing at a point other than the point of departure; and

(D) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point.

 

[mcdewey]

Nope, a cross country requires a landing (61.109).

 

[nj-pilot]

Was trying to define "flight" - didn't occur to me to look up definition of "cross country" (which i thought was only a characterization of distance). Ok, many thanks

 

[midwestpa24]

Yep, you have to land somewhere else for it to be a cross-country. If you flew all the way around the world non-stop, but landed at the same airport you left, you could not log it as cross-country (I believe its been done).

I ran into this as a student pilot. I left on my solo cross-country, but prior to reaching my first destination ran into an unforecasted band of rain, chickened out, and flew back home. Nearly 2 hours roundtrip, but since I didn't land anywhere else, it was just solo time, not XC. My instructor asked me why I didn't just land somewhere else. I told him I didn't think that was allowed, because I was only endorsed for the destination airports.

 

[Half Fast]

Pay attention to the 2 hour requirement, too. It’s easy to do the 100 miles and get back within less than 2 hours.

I flew a non-direct route on mine to get about 2.3 hours but made sure that a direct route fulfilled the 100nm requirement.

 

[Dry Creek]

So, if I were to land (full stop), shut down and then take a stroll to get a cup of coffee, that would count towards the two hours? Or, is that only Hobbs meter time?

 

[SkyChaser]

So, if I were to land (full stop), shut down and then take a stroll to get a cup of coffee, that would count towards the two hours? Or, is that only Hobbs meter time?

It's "in the airplane" time, so Hobbs meter time. You could stay overnight somewhere and still only have a half hour cross country.

 

[Clip4]

Regarding the night flight requirement (61.129.a.3.iv): One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure

My question is - does this require a landing at an airport beyond 100 nm from origin? Can I just stay airborne, hit the 100 nm and 2 hour requirement, return to origin, and check the box?

This requirement is 2 dual XCs with a CFI - 1 day and 1 night.

I like knocking out both XCs the same day during the short days of winter. Depart day, land and eat dinner, fly back night or depart early morning for the night segment, eat breakfast, and return for the day segment.

 

[Dry Creek]

It's "in the airplane" time, so Hobbs meter time. You could stay overnight somewhere and still only have a half hour cross country.

That makes sense. It will probably be a month or so before I come across this requirement. I do like the plan laid out by Clip4 though. Combining the two would make the most of flight training resources! Now to dig out the sectionals and lay out a "greater than 100 NM" circle from KSEP to identify possible destinations - with a restaurant at or near the FBO, or available transportation. KERV? KSJT?

 

[MauleSkinner]

So, if I were to land (full stop), shut down and then take a stroll to get a cup of coffee, that would count towards the two hours? Or, is that only Hobbs meter time?

Cross-country time means -

(i) Except as provided in paragraphs (ii) through (vi) of this definition, time acquired during flight -

 

[TommyG]

So, if I were to land (full stop), shut down and then take a stroll to get a cup of coffee, that would count towards the two hours? Or, is that only Hobbs meter time?

It’s still on the Hobbs regardless of going for a stroll or not. Many times with a student we would stop and have lunch. In reality you can fly one way, stay a week, and then fly back.

 

[texasclouds]

That’s a great question! You’ll need to land at the airport 100+nm away.

 

[RussR]

I do the out-in-the-day, eat dinner, back-at-night version of this routinely. In fact, it's my default way of meeting the requirements, because it most closely simulates a "real" flight.

Just be aware that you have to make the outbound leg and the inbound leg each equal 2+ hours. So if you pick a spot to land at that's only 101 nm away, there's going to be a lot of delay getting there assuming you're in anything like a 172 or faster airplane.

I have a favorite spot to go that is about 130 nm away. Even that takes some delay to make it 2 hours in a 172. But I will make this useful by having multiple diversions enroute, some emergencies, and an instrument approach (maybe with a missed approach) or two. Trying to make it both realistic and a good use of time.

You can also do some maneuvers enroute, at least during the day (I've found that few commercial maneuvers are effectively trained at night). This usually has the side benefit of getting the student a bit lost, so if I also turn off, or cover up, the GPS then they have to get themselves un-lost, which is actually an ACS item anyway.