first cross county

flyingcowboy69

flyingcowboy69

Filing Flight Plan
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flyingcowboy69
I was wanting to know if your instructor is supposed to fly with you to a new airport before sendind you to do your solo cross crountrys?
 
yes.

i always do all the required XC training with my students before sending them solo. so at least one day, one night, for a total of 3 hours at least, its usually somewhere around 5. we cover pilotage, dead reckoning, and electronic nav. lost procedures, ATC and FSS communications. the list goes on and on.

even if you want to go to an area airport to practice solo (not XC) your CFI has to sign you off for that airport and he will need to go there with you.

and welcome to PoA! Where you from, what do you fly?
 
You do at least one dual cross country. I did two dual XCs. One by pilotage along a direct straight line and one by VOR and airways.

What doesn't happen is going dual to the airport you're going to on your solo XC.
 
mikea said:
What doesn't happen is going dual to the airport you're going to on your solo XC.
Click to expand...

not necessarily. often instructors will send students to a familiar airport on the first solo XC.
 
I did a day XC with my dad and a night XC with my dad before sending him out on his first solo cross country. He wanted to jump right into it, and didn't just do a 50 mile out-and-back, but 130 miles on the first leg, 54 miles on the second leg, 38 miles on the third leg, and 74 miles on his last leg.

The only airports your CFI needs to visit with you are ones that he will signe you off for repeated mini XC flights. Less than 50 miles away.
 
Are you asking if the instructor has to fly a XC with you before signing off OR are you asking if the instructor has to have gone with you to the airport he is signing you off for?

The first, IMO, is yes.

The second IMO, is for the most part, no.

I believe my long cross country had an airport that I had never been to before. The instructor just verified that I had reviewed the AF/D and was comfortable with their local procedures.
 
My first solo X/C was a repeat of a dual X/C, but my long X/C was to two airports I'd never been to before. My CFI reviewed my planning and signed me off for it.
 
My experiance was that we went dual XC to an airport then my instructor sent me on my first solo XC to the next airport over. A little south and a little east of the airport we did the dual to. The route was therefor familure but also still a new experiance.

Missa
 
As noted, the regulations require the instructor to give you cross-country training (and, by definition, that means a flight including a landing more than 50nm from the original point of departure) before signing you off for solo XC. That's the extent of the regulatory requirement -- at least one XC flight, to one other airport more than 50 nm away, and no regulatory requirement that your solo XC's be to an airport to which you've already been with your instructor.

However, most all instructors will want to see you perform successfully on at least one other dual XC before turning you loose. Also, some instructors (like me) prefer the first solo to be to an airport to which the trainee has already been with the instructor, deferring the first "strange" airport XC to the second solo XC, but these are instructor preferences, not regulatory requirements.
 
IIRC, Leslie only had ONE solo XC, and it was to airport she hadn't visited before. It missed qualifying for the Commercial XC by about 10NM. It's not how either she or the instructor really wanted it, though. The weather just pushed it right up against her scheduled checkride.
 
gprellwitz said:
IIRC, Leslie only had ONE solo XC, and it was to airport she hadn't visited before. It missed qualifying for the Commercial XC by about 10NM. It's not how either she or the instructor really wanted it, though. The weather just pushed it right up against her scheduled checkride.
Click to expand...

Must have been a sssslllllooooow plane. You need 5 hours of solo XC time:

61.109(a)(3)(i)
 
well ed, a 240 nm out, come back with one stop somewhere. even in a 172 with about 110 TAS, and a typical wind aloft that would push over 5 hrs.
 
EdFred said:
Must have been a sssslllllooooow plane. You need 5 hours of solo XC time:

61.109(a)(3)(i)
Click to expand...
Roughly Chicago to Carbondale (southern tip of Illinois) to St. Louis (Litchfield, actually) to Quad Cities back to Chicago. All in one day. (Okay, I may have reversed the order, she'll correct me if I did.)

Code: 
 Location Airways Course Mag Crs Distance Total 
                                                         BOLINGBROOKS CLOW INTL [1C5]
 APT to APT 193° 196° 240.6 nm 240.6 nm SOUTHERN ILLINOIS [MDH]
 APT to APT 347° 348° 85.3 nm 325.9 nm   LITCHFIELD MUNI [3LF]
 APT to APT 345° 346° 142.3 nm 468.2 nm QUAD CITY INTL [MLI]
 APT to APT 081° 082° 108.1 nm 576.3 nm BOLINGBROOKS CLOW INTL [1C5]


 
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If your long term goal is to bore holes in the local sky, just get the XC hours the best way you can.

If your long term goal is to GO places, make the XC time as meaningful as possible. If after 2 dual XC, you can't find a new destination airport without your CFIs help, you haven't learned very well.

My XCs (in order)
Dual to Bowie, TX. (pilotage out, VOR back)
Dual to Durant, OK. (VOR out and Back)
Solo to Bridgeport, TX (Pilotage only)
Solo to Wood County, TX (Vor to vor, course change at intersection)
Night dual to Ardmore, OK (VOR and pilotage)
Solo to Corsicana, TX, Paris, TX (Pilotage VOR and pilotage)

Of the 7 airports, the CFU had never been to 2 of them.
 
My dual XC work went north on the first trip KOQN-KHZL-KABE-KOQN, OQN was N99 at that time. Second trip went west to York, PA (KTHV), Lancaster, PA (KLNS) and back home to Brandywine (KOQN)

My solo XC's went south OQN,ESN, GED, ILG, OQN the second was OQN, SBY across the Delaware Bay to WWD a stop and go at ILG, then home to OQN

Great experiences in pilotage and VOR work. Like Bo, I to wanted a challenge since Mary and I want to travel and not just bore holes in the sky, although we do enjoy the lunch runs!
 
Being based at OLM my CFI would send all his PP students to KLS for their first XC (and, yes, we went there dual first). KLS is 51 nm from OLM and IFR works like a charm. Follow I-5 from OLM to KLS. If you can get lost flying that route, find another way to spend your disposable income. :D
 
Hmmm.

Mine were:

Dual to MWC (where I'd worked and lived for several years)
Dual to PVB
Night Dual to GRB
Solo to RFD
Solo to OVS
Solo to OSH and ETB
Solo to OSH to meet a friend (didn't really need to do that for the rating...)

So, pretty much somewhere new every time.
 
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