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Cross Country for Instrument Rating

Asked by: 1820 views Instrument Rating

I had a question regarding building cross country hours. I know I must do a landing 50nm away. But can anyone tell me if the following scenario will count as a cross country towards the instrument rating.

The destination airport is 55nm away. Due to class bravo restrictions, one possible route is 66.5 NM, and another route is 85nm. If I take the 66.5 nm route to go there and then take the 85 nm route (to get additional sightseeing) to come back, will that entire flight count as a cross country. I'm just wondering if the examiner will question why it took too long to go to an airport that is only 55nm and that you should've taken the 66.5 nm route to come back as well. Just wondering on what others have to say.

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2 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Sep 26, 2018

    If you land at an airport that is more than 50nm away, it counts as a XC for the instrument rating. There is no mention in the regulations of any restrictions on how you get there.

    You want to sightsee for an hour or two, fine. You want to do touch-and goes for a while, fine. The only requirement is that you land at that >50nm away airport.

    So you will be fine. The examiner should not have any questions or issues. If he or she does, just tell them what you did. No big deal. In fact, in your case it would show awareness of airspace.

    Of course, the other question is why are you going out of your way to avoid the Class B airspace? They may let you in.

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  2. pilotrs on Sep 26, 2018

    They didn’t let us in the last two times and just told us to go south a little. So we flew below the class bravo layers.

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