Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

Cross country distance

Asked by: 4627 views FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Instrument Rating

A quick question on a flight with multiple legs, and counting this flight as Cross Country - for the instrument rating requirement.

Say the flight has 4 legs, and they are in order 28, 17, 19 and 62. The last leg brings you back to the first airport of departure. Can this be counted as a XC flight for the Instrument Rating?

According to my current instructor: No. His reasoning is that the first leg has to be 50 + NM.

 Other instructors say: as long as one leg is more than 50 NM, it should be good.

What say you?

 

 

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.

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Bob Watson on May 03, 2014

    Looking at FAR 61.1, the definition of “Cross-country” for the Instrument rating says (ii)(b) “That includes a point of landing that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure;” So, I’d agree with the other instructors (rather, they appear to agree with the FAR). Ask your current instructor where it says anything about the first leg. If it becomes an issue, couldn’t you just reverse the order of airports?

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Mark Kolber on May 03, 2014

    The flight counts.

    Actually, you can ask the first CFI where it says anything about any leg. Anyone see the word “leg” in Bob’s quote from the reg?

    So it depends on where those airports are. Yours is fine as a countable cross country but I can easily envision a flight that has an intermediate leg more than 50 NM that does not qualify as a cross country toward the instrument rating (although part of it would). I can also envision a a multi-leg flight that does count even though not even one leg is more than 30 NM (that 30 is not a magic number; I just was choosing a number obviously less than 50).

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. R.W Williams on May 03, 2014

    Thanks for the responses. This clears up the confusion.

    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.