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Commercial Cross-Country

Asked by: 17941 views Commercial Pilot

Dear CFIs, For the long cross-country requirement for a commercial certificate found in 61.429 (4i) it says: "One cross-country flight of not less than 300 nautical miles total distance, with landings at a minimum of three points, one of which is a straight-line distance of at least 250 nautical miles from the original departure point." My question is - Can two of the landings be within 50 nautical miles of one another?  Or does each landing have to be more than a distance of 50 miles away to count? For example, I take off solo from my home airport and fly 7 miles to my first landing, 90 miles to my second, and 280 miles to my third (assuming that is >250 nm from my home airport.)  Does that count as a valid long cross-country under the regulation?

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4 Answers



  1. Ron Klutts on Oct 07, 2013

    Yes, the main requirement is that one of the landings must be >250 miles from point of departure, the other 2 landing can be anywhere in between.

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  2. Ernest Ortner on Oct 07, 2013

    To add you also can make your third landing back at your point of origin. So if you leave from A you can land at B and C and then the third landing can be back to A. As long as B or C is at least 250NM from point A and the total trip is at least 300NM.

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  3. DW on Oct 07, 2013

    Ron, Ernest – That’s what I thought. Thanks for the answers!

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  4. shields on May 20, 2016

    Question in ref. to

    “To add you also can make your third landing back at your point of origin. So if you leave from A you can land at B and C and then the third landing can be back to A. As long as B or C is at least 250NM from point A and the total trip is at least 300NM.”

    Does the XCTRY, i.e. coming back to your point of origin for the third leg need to accomplished on the same day. For example, Saturday will take off in Atlanta fly the 25O to Lake City then to Ocala, Then on Sunday fly back to Atlanta. Will the XCRTY requirement be met? Thanks

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