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5 Answers

Can the 150NM cross country have 4 destinations airports instead of 3?

Asked by: 2441 views Private Pilot

Any reason the 150NM solo cross country flight, for private pilot, cannot have more than three destination airports?

Three will be Class D and one Class G. I have a towered airport endorsement.

In my case, I have chosen four for reasons of staying clear of  ADSB areas and still meeting the +150NM requirement. Total distance is 174NM in a loop back to my (Class G) airport, which is not one of the four.

My CFI is questioning having four and will see what he can find out but figured I ask, here, as well.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

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5 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Aug 27, 2021

    I have to think only the most ridiculously pedantic examiner would disallow a solo XC flight with more than the minimum required landings. Don’t we always talk about wanting to exceed the minimum requirements?

    However, I also know they’re out there.

    The reg specifically says “with full stop landings at 3 points”. So, equally pedantically, if you did a touch-and-go at the 4th point it wouldn’t count “against you”, as ridiculous as that sounds.

    If there is actually a debate about it, just ask the examiner you plan to use. They are essentially the final arbiter of any issues like that. Hopefully you get a rationale examiner who will just laugh and say “well of course that’s okay”.

    Because for it to be otherwise would mean that you could fly solo across the U.S. and not have it count. Which is absurd.

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  2. stillkicking on Aug 27, 2021

    My current CFI (the 5th I have had on this journey) is a great guy. He was just wanting to be certain, for my benefit. DPE’s can be prickly about meeting the exact letter of the regulations.

    He did get back to me last night to say all was well with the extra stop as long as one of the legs was at least 50 nm, which one of them was.

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  3. Russ Roslewski on Aug 27, 2021

    Glad to hear. There are a lot of regulations where we have to read “intent” rather than the exact words.

    This one is a perfect example. The reg says you have to fly “One solo cross country flight of 150 nautical miles total distance”. It doesn’t say “of at least 150 nm total distance” – note that some of the other XC requirements do actually say that. So a strict reading is that it has to be EXACTLY 150 nm, no more, no less.

    Of course, this is ridiculous and obviously wasn’t the intent. I’ve never heard of anybody arguing that position.

    But there are other examples where, although I thought the viewpoint was ridiculous, someone actually was pretty adamant about it. My favorite real example is the IFR XC requirement, where you have to do “an instrument approach at each airport”, and “at least three approaches”.

    To me, the intent of this is really that you make a 250+ nm XC, and do at least 3 approaches somewhere. It’s to gain valuable experience outside of the local area. But that first statement “an instrument approach at each airport” has caused some pedantry.

    A literal reading says that if you are based at an airport with no approaches, you cannot fly the XC, doing 3 approaches (even at three different airports), and then return to your home airport – because in so doing, you did not fly an approach at “each” airport, since you home airport doesn’t have approaches. Now, you can do some logbook manipulation to make it look like you did, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

    Similarly, you could make a cross-the-U.S. flight, doing 15 instrument approaches of all kinds, but if you stop for gas somewhere with no approach, well that trip doesn’t count. Again, there are various ways to enter it into your logbook so that it does count, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

    And yes, I had a very experienced CFI argue with me that that’s exactly what the reg meant to say and the way he enforced it with his students.

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  4. Toby Rice on Aug 27, 2021

    Yeah you’re good. Whoever argues otherwise doesn’t understand the spirit of the law. These regs were made by humans, are prone to error, and don’t mean a thing until a bunch of lawyers argue it up in court.

    I have sent students to 6 or 7 airports on their solo XC in the past. They had a ton of fun, great experience. Lots of work, too.

    The IFR XC scenario with approaches at each airport… if I was a DPE and saw a XC that was at least 250 nm round trip, had 3 different types of approaches and did them at three different airports, I’d be happy. The idea is to get the pilot flying a long and stressful flight with missed approaches, maybe landings, diversions to alternates, and so on. It’s about training. Also it never says you have to land… we could argue that one! Haha. None of the DPEs in Nashville care about such semantics… it’s about what makes SENSE.

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  5. Russ Roslewski on Aug 28, 2021

    Toby –
    “Also it never says you have to land… we could argue that one!”

    There shouldn’t be any room for discussion, in order for it to be a XC, it requires a landing >50 nm away. 61.1, “Definitions”.

    No, you don’t have to land at any other airports, but you do have to land at at least one for it to count (and presumably, of course, back at home, but nothing says it has to be a round-robin trip).

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