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Cross country flight logging

Asked by: 4361 views FAA Regulations, Instrument Rating

Greetings. I'm a new private pilot, logging time towards an eventual instrument rating. I searched FAR 61.1 definitions for my answer but didn't find what I'm looking for. Let me illustrate my question with an example from today's flying:   Leg 1: Left home airport and flew to an airport 46 miles away. Taxied, parked, went to town, ate delicious sandwich.   Leg 2: Flew from airport with sandwich to another 20 miles away, landed, back-taxi, and departed.   Leg 3: Flew 60 miles back to home airport.     I understand from FAR 61.1 that cross countries include a "landing that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles". My day's flying included a landing greater than 50nm so I know I can log some cross country time. But, can I count all three legs?  

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2 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Sep 01, 2013

    You’re doing a good job reading that reg. Yes, for the purpose of logging a countable xc toward your instrument rating advanced certificates and ratings, only one point of landing needs to be more than 50 NM from the original point of departure. So long as you have that one point, the whole flight counts as a xc.

    IOW, in order to count as a xc for those purposes, it does not matter if, for example, you land at other airports along the way.

    So yes, all three legs of your flight count as loggable xc time.

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  2. compjtc on Sep 02, 2013

    Thanks! Much appreciated.

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