Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Cross Country Time

Asked by: 1361 views ,
FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Private Pilot

Hello all, 

A friend and I are going on a cross country trip and I wanted to know if I can log the time that we fly as cross country time in my logbook even though he will be the one flying? We are both private pilots. Thank you all. 

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Gary Moore on Apr 24, 2020

    no

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. pilotmike33 on May 11, 2020

    Hi, yes you can log the time. You have to be careful here because the regulation is clear on how you log the time and they trust you won’t “cheat.” Here’s what I mean. Let’s say your friend is going to fly- okay fine. Now for you to log the time- you will have to log it as a “safety pilot.” I know all about this because I logged flight time flying with my Dad this way. I didn’t go to a pilot mill or study at an aviation college- I got a real degree- PreMed. I started off as a hobby pilot and got my time builder as his safety pilot. He was under the hood for IFR practice and I watched outside. Okay- so you can do this but it has to be VFR conditions and technically you don’t have to be current (he does) but you should try to stay current. You could fly the leg back (under the hood) and your friend can be your safety pilot. You have to state in your logbook that’s you were a safety pilot and for whom. Whoever’s flying is PIC (technically) but as safety pilot you’re responsible for separation per visual flight rules- so it’s actually dual PIC. It works out. But you can only log when he’s under the hood. So you can’t log engine start, taxi, run-up, take-off- only when he puts on his hood and until he takes it off. But since you are flying as a safety pilot, it’s flight time and cross county (granted if you landed somewhere 50 nm away). If you don’t, you can log it under ATP cross-country time (as long as you flew to a point 50 nm). So, you can log the time.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.