50 hours of cross-country

TK211X

TK211X

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50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane

Can that be any old cross country time? Like, would a direct 53NM VFR flight count? Or does it have to have an Instrument approach with an instructor?
 
TK211X said:
50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane

Can that be any old cross country time? Like, would a direct 53NM VFR flight count? Or does it have to have an Instrument approach with an instructor?
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It can be VFR or IFR. I started training with about 40 hours PIC X country and we did about 10 hours IFR X country.
 
AFAIK the time spent during PPL must be solo XC PIC and not dual with an instructor. After PPL, it can be XC dual PIC with a CFI or safety pilot.
 
TK211X said:
50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane

Can that be any old cross country time? Like, would a direct 53NM VFR flight count? Or does it have to have an Instrument approach with an instructor?
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Yes, it can be "any old cross country time" that meets the >50 NM landing requirement and during which you were authorized to log PIC time.

What in the wording of the requirement makes you think it is something other than that?
 
I forgot about this requirement and at about 3pm the day before my checkride I realized I was 5 hours short and took a cessna 150 from el paso to sante fe and back to get those hours ended up being 5.5. The FAA guy made a comment about how I might have been able to drive faster but didn't care
 
Doesn't matter if it's VFR or IFR XC time.

We did almost all of my IFR training as XC time to make sure that I met the 50. Additionally, I'm a big believer in scenario based training, where you spend most of the time training the way you'll actually fly. When you have an instrument rating, it's to go places, not to fly around the pattern. So, go places in your training!
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Doesn't matter if it's VFR or IFR XC time.

We did almost all of my IFR training as XC time to make sure that I met the 50. Additionally, I'm a big believer in scenario based training, where you spend most of the time training the way you'll actually fly. When you have an instrument rating, it's to go places, not to fly around the pattern. So, go places in your training!
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:yeahthat: I couldn't agree more. Plus you'll get some variety in your approaches.
 
I did a lot as VFR PnP missions. Then topped off with IFR training that had some approaches.
 
Or you can do like I did and go part 141 which eliminates the 50hr x/c requirement altogether.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We did almost all of my IFR training as XC time to make sure that I met the 50. Additionally, I'm a big believer in scenario based training, where you spend most of the time training the way you'll actually fly. When you have an instrument rating, it's to go places, not to fly around the pattern. So, go places in your training!
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That. I started my instrument training with about 10 hours of cross country PIC time. Therefore, most of my instrument lessons have been cross country. It really is good real life training, can hit several different approaches a long the way at different airports too. I made up the time pretty quick. Hope to be taking my check ride before long. Also, pretty much any VFR flying I have down on my own lately I have made sure was 50 NM or more with a landing.
 
tsts4 said:
Or you can do like I did and go part 141 which eliminates the 50hr x/c requirement altogether.
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And miss the fun, challenge, an real learning that takes place when flying to new places? Makes sense if on a fast track for some reason like career aspirations, but isn't going places part of the reason for most of us learning to fly?
 
midlifeflyer said:
And miss the fun, challenge, an real learning that takes place when flying to new places? Makes sense if on a fast track for some reason like career aspirations, but isn't going places part of the reason for most of us learning to fly?
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Different strokes. I had about 35 hours x/c time when I took my checkride at the min 35 hours of instrument instruction. My point is x/c time doesn't have to be an obstacle to achieving the rating.
 
TheGolfPilot said:
I forgot about this requirement and at about 3pm the day before my checkride I realized I was 5 hours short and took a cessna 150 from el paso to sante fe and back to get those hours ended up being 5.5. The FAA guy made a comment about how I might have been able to drive faster but didn't care
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Wow. It just dawned on me. Rutan and Yeager's around the world flight in Voyager was not a cross country flight.
 
TheGolfPilot said:
I forgot about this requirement and at about 3pm the day before my checkride I realized I was 5 hours short and took a cessna 150 from el paso to sante fe and back to get those hours ended up being 5.5. The FAA guy made a comment about how I might have been able to drive faster but didn't care
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Wow. Your instructor didn't catch that before endorsing you?
 
TheGolfPilot said:
I forgot about this requirement and at about 3pm the day before my checkride I realized I was 5 hours short and took a cessna 150 from el paso to sante fe and back to get those hours ended up being 5.5. The FAA guy made a comment about how I might have been able to drive faster but didn't care
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Was your instructor comatose or does he always endorse people for checkrides that haven't met all the requirements?
 
But why bother with the 50.1nm flight?

Why not do a REAL cross country and challenge yourself, you'll learn more, you'll get it done faster, I just don't get why people want to pay for expensive flight training and cheapen it's quality by doing stuff like this.


RussR said:
Wow. Your instructor didn't catch that before endorsing you?
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And how/who filled out the online IACRA? It won't even let you go forward if things don't add up.
 
RussR said:
Wow. Your instructor didn't catch that before endorsing you?
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I thought I had the hours well covered. I probably told her that and she probably took my word for it. The instructors job is to make sure I am prepared for the checkride, I was. I had miscounted my hours. Looking at my logbook there are lines drawn through in multiple places for the x-country. It wasn't her fault I was too lazy to double add up my x-country hours until right before. I suppose I had miscounted and realized it. Punished myself by going flying
 
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Didn't IACRA catch it?
 
TheGolfPilot said:
Iacra only catches what you put in. It doesn't know if you miss added your numbers up.
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I'll confirm this. When I was reviewing my application for my IFR checkride, I had an obvious math error that my CFII spotted during our review. Unfortunately the "time grid" of IACRA doesn't have any math functions built in to its form to help catch such errors.
 
I remember when I started my instrument training last year, mid-summer. We were about 2/3 of the way through the instrument training and myself and the CFI took a look at the numbers...

I had 180-ish hours TT... but needed something like 32 hours of XC time.

I flew a lot of consecutive flights that entailed a landing more than 50 miles away.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I'll confirm this. When I was reviewing my application for my IFR checkride, I had an obvious math error that my CFII spotted during our review. Unfortunately the "time grid" of IACRA doesn't have any math functions built in to its form to help catch such errors.
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It does if you let MyFlightBook do your math.
 
You and your instructor must be friends,can we assume you said you had the hours and the instructor believed you. Cross country time is cross country time old or new.Go fly and get the hours.
 
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