Question about XC solo requirement

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obelix

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obelix
5 hrs required, with 150nm XC and one leg over 50miles. After I do the 150nm, can I burn up the rest of my XC time in airports within 50nm of my home airport?
 
No expert (recent PPL), but it seems pretty clearly to me that the answer is "no."

If you took less than 5 hrs doing your solo XCs, you can't gather the final bit of the required 5 hrs by doing XCs of <50nm. You need to gather the 5 hrs while flying XCs that include at least one segment that is >50nm.

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FAR 61.109 lays out the "aeronautical experience" needed to get a PPL, and in paragraph (5), it only says you need 5 hrs of solo "cross country" flight, one XC that's > 150nm and has one leg of >50nm, and 3 takeoff and 3 landings.

FAR 61.1(b)(4), however, defines "cross-country time" and, in paragraph (ii)(B ), it says that for the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements for a PPL, that time must be accumulated during flights that are between airports that are separated by > 50nm.
 
Also no expert, but recent PPL. All XC has to be >50nm from dep airport to arr airport. Don't make the mistake of taking off and finding an airport 50 miles away in iFly, wasting an hour there and back, only to find out iFly uses statute miles. :(
 
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And don't be "that guy" that ends up 0.1 hrs short of XC requirements, then has to do another full XC just to pick up those last 6 minutes.
 
The private pilot cross-country hours require a LANDING at least 50 nautical miles STRAIGHT LINE DISTANCE from the starting point.

See 14 CFR 61.1(b)(3)(ii)(B).

The one variable you have is the starting point. You can reposition the aircraft, call it a different flight (not logged cross-country), and then fly 51 miles in the other direction as cross-country.
 
That seems to take the fun out of it. Go explore.
 
Well, there is one way he could burn up time with closer airports, though it's no fun as mentioned earlier.

If he finishes his 150 mile flight, he can then continue around to local airports -- or just remain in the pattern -- and have it count as cross-country, provided it's the same "flight."

It defeats the purpose, though. It might be sensible to go once around the pattern to burn off 0.1 hours, but needing much more than that indicates not very good planning.

I had 3.1 solo cross country hours to burn by the time my long solo cross-country came around and all the other requirements were done. So I just made the long cross country longer. It was over 250 miles rather than 150, and I went all the way to Fresno from the Bay Area. Excellent experience, IMO.
 
No all flights must be over 50 NM to count. I ended up short XC time after two flights. I had to plan a third of over 50 nm to get the requirement.
 
Anyone who ends up 0.1 or 0.2 short on XC time should have used a better flight instructor, or one willing to let them go a little further from the nest.

I think out of all my solo time for my private only 1.0 was NOT XC. All of my students do well over 5 hours XC. One had a 4+ hour solo XC.
 
FAA has really gotten soft on the XC requirements nowadays. When I took my PPL you needed 10 hrs solo XC with one being 300NM long with landings at 3 airports 100NM apart. 5 hrs XC is nothing. My long XC was longer than that!
 
No reason why not as long as each flight is at least 50 NM.
 
EdFred said:
Anyone who ends up 0.1 or 0.2 short on XC time should have used a better flight instructor, or one willing to let them go a little further from the nest.

I think out of all my solo time for my private only 1.0 was NOT XC. All of my students do well over 5 hours XC. One had a 4+ hour solo XC.
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I was more like 0.7 short, and the instructor was shocked. He had another student that did basically the same XC's and it took him significantly more time. Actually both my initial XC logged in as shorter than another student that was about the same place I was. Not really sure how that happened. My instructor was actually very liberal with where he let people go. Two of the three XC I did were on routes and to airports I had never been to before.
 
old cfi said:
FAA has really gotten soft on the XC requirements nowadays. When I took my PPL you needed 10 hrs solo XC with one being 300NM long with landings at 3 airports 100NM apart. 5 hrs XC is nothing. My long XC was longer than that!
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I had the same experience in 1990. I wonder why they lowered the standards.
 
Matthew said:
And don't be "that guy" that ends up 0.1 hrs short of XC requirements, then has to do another full XC just to pick up those last 6 minutes.
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And this is why I flew the last leg of my long xc at like 70kts. :goofy:
 
The words AT LEAST gives it away, if you're worried about coming up short just plan one that's 200nm, you're going to need the hours anyways, ain't like it's going to hurt you.
 
mkosmo said:
And this is why I flew the last leg of my long xc at like 70kts. :goofy:
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My CFI, just before my last XC, had me sit down and we tallied up my XC hours. I was making a pretty significant flight, but the planning showed I'd be close to my required time when I got back. We looked at the Hobbs, wrote down the numbers nice and big, added my remaining time and I was told, "Part of your job is to make sure you do not land until the Hobbs reaches this number! S-turns, slow flight, pattern work, whatever it takes!" I was well over by the time I got back, so no problem. But I DID know a student from another school and CFI that did end up 0.1 short. He got the same speech from his CFI, but cut it too close and found an addition error later.
 
Matthew said:
My CFI, just before my last XC, had me sit down and we tallied up my XC hours. I was making a pretty significant flight, but the planning showed I'd be close to my required time when I got back. We looked at the Hobbs, wrote down the numbers nice and big, added my remaining time and I was told, "Part of your job is to make sure you do not land until the Hobbs reaches this number! S-turns, slow flight, pattern work, whatever it takes!" I was well over by the time I got back, so no problem. But I DID know a student from another school and CFI that did end up 0.1 short. He got the same speech from his CFI, but cut it too close and found an addition error later.
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My instructor jokingly encouraged me to do the entire thing in slow flight just for the hours, but that'd have been too much work!
 
I just completed my long solo xc. My first solo xc was just over the 50 mm distance due to timing, scheduling, wanting to fit it in, build some confidence, etc, etc. My long xc was 250nm and had four airports with two small airports I had never been to. It was wonderful, not perfect. What made it wonderful was it wasn't perfect and I still did it! Planning worked out well with one screw up on overestimating time to one checkpoint, found where I was going, and dealt with a number of what I would call small hiccups where my shorter flight might have only had one little hiccup. Dealing with multiple things that just come up over a longer flight was really valuable for me for learning. I was really glad that I chose 4 airports, as one ended up having a crosswind that was beyond my current abilities. This way I could just overfly it and head home still with required distance, time and stops.

If you can due to time, airplane availability, etc , I recommend going "longer" with an extra stop. I understand why sometimes we just go with minimum requirements, it's not always easy scheduling this stuff.
 
Matthew said:
And don't be "that guy" that ends up 0.1 hrs short of XC requirements, then has to do another full XC just to pick up those last 6 minutes.
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That was me, but it is fixable mistake. After making it to the ramp I realized I was just shy, so went back out and did a lap around the pattern.
 
Why would anyone want to fly 50.1 nm just to get the XC time? When my son was younger he would fly along and nearing a destination always pipe up," this better not be a TNG or SNG only ... I want a full stop and see something or eat something.":D

To the newer pilots: once you start reaching 500+ hours, everything within 250 nm seems "local" and you'll feel you need to fly straight line at least 2 hours at 130 knots to start getting into something a "little different."
 
I turned my cross country into a trip to see my family on the other side of the state. One leg was basically almost 150 NM so I ended up double what I needed. Sure I could have gone the minimum, but I wanted to use my time to do something "practical" since I knew I'd be doing the same sort of thing once I got my license.
 
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