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2 Answers

Cross Country Time

Asked by: 1375 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. 

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2 Answers



  1. Gary Moore on Apr 24, 2020

    no

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  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.

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