Cross Country Flight?

Question

After you have received your commercial pilots license and you are working on building hours, how far does an airport have to be from your point of origin to qualify as a "cross country flight?" What FAR or other regulation, be specific, covers this?

Answer 1

There is no regulatory distance requirement, it simply involves a landing at an airport other than the departure airport.

If you want to log it for the purposes of receiving an ATP certificate, your flight must be 50NM in total length and involve flying to a "Navigable Point"

Many people interpret this in different ways.  A flight could simply fly to an airport 50 NM away.  It could also fly to a waypoint 25NM away and return.  Or it could fly to a few different waypoints closer than that but go at least 50NM in total.

The reality is that it just doesn't matter all that much.  Log it however you feel comfortable logging it.  When you show up for your ATP checkride, nobody will really care whether or not your flights were 50NM in total length.

Just make sure that if you are logging "local" flights as cross country you include the navigable point in your logbook remarks, just to CYA.  Most of my flights included the name of the practice area, a freeway intersection, a gps waypoint, or an airport.  This just makes it easier to reconstruct and looks more professional.  A navigable point is basically anything that another pilot could recreate.  This includes anything on a Nav chart, a GPS database, or even street intersections.  It probably does not include "mom's house" though, so make sure you keep it a little professional.

Answer 2

The 50nm distance required between airports for logging purposes only applied to getting your private, instrument and commercial ratings. Now you're commercially licensed, any flight from one airport to another can be logged as a cross country flight, even if it is only 10 miles away, so for getting in your 500 hours CC time towards the ATP, there are no restrictions.

Answer 3

<Edited to clean up the mishmash of regulations>

My notes are in brackets

FAR 61.1: Applicability and definitions:

(3) Cross-country time means—

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{General Logging, not toward any certificate - A landing at a point other than the original point of departure, no distance requirement}

(i) Except as provided in paragraphs (b)(3)(ii) through (b)(3)(vi) of this section, 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.

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{Toward a private certificate, commercial certificate, or instrument rating - A landing at an airport at least 50nm straight line distance from the point of departure}

(ii) For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements (except for a rotorcraft category rating), for a private pilot certificate (except for a powered parachute category rating), a commercial pilot certificate, or an instrument rating, or for the purpose of exercising recreational pilot privileges (except in a rotorcraft) under §61.101 (c), time acquired during a flight—

(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;

(B) That includes a point of landing that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and

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

-------------------------------

{Sport Pilot Certificate and Rotorcraft Certificate requirements removed for space}

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{Toward an ATP certificate - a flight that is a straight-line distance of at least 50nm from the point of departure - no requirement to land - a so-called "point in space" cross country}

(vi) For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements for an airline transport pilot certificate (except with a rotorcraft category rating), time acquired during a flight—

(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;

(B) That is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and

(C) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems.

(vii) For a military pilot who qualifies for a commercial pilot certificate (except with a rotorcraft category rating) under §61.73 of this part, time acquired during a flight—

(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;

(B) That is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and

(C) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems.

-------------------------------

{End of regulation quote}

Summary:

Private & Commercial requirements: Landing 50+nm away from departure point (straight line distance)

ATP requirements: 50+nm away from the point of departure, but landing at another airport is not required (point in space)

General logging: A landing at an airport other than the point of departure, but distance doesn't matter.  This is the requirement for FAR 135 PIC cross country experience.

Clear as mud, right?

<edit>: Ben Dere, your answers are usually spot on, but I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one.

For FAR 135 PIC authorization requirements, the distance doesn't matter.  For an ATP, the regulations still state the flight has to go 50 miles from the original point of departure, but it doesn't state that you have to land.

Answer 4

Cross coutry flight for a rating is 50 NM. If it is not for a rating  a cross country is one airport to another. 5 or 50 miles. If you log by the 50 mile rule it keeps life simple.

Answer 5

careful with that, once theres a guy that conducting an around-the-world flight (d**k rutan), and the FAA told him that is the longest "local" flight they've ever known. (depart and arrive in the same airport)

Answer 6

You sound so sure Ben Dere Dun Dat, however

reading § 61.1    3   (vi) that says...

"For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements for an airline transport pilot certificate (except with a rotorcraft category rating), time acquired during a flight—

(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;

(B) That is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and"

<snip>

tells me otherwise.