On another flight, let's say I plan a flight from Airport A to C, then return to A. While I'm at Airport C, I decide to fly to Airport B, then home to A. Because I never intended to fly to Airport B, would Airport C now be my original part of departure, and would my flight to Airport B - a 55 mile flight - count as cross-country time?
Mark S. Bell
Leechburg, Pennsylvania
A. After combing the federal aviation regulations, FAA orders, handbooks, advisory circulars, and chief counsel interpretations, I can't find an FAA definition for "original point of departure" - nor can the FAA Flight Standard District Office inspectors I queried.
The FAA didn't include "original point of departure" in Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 95-11, which debuted the proposed changes to Part 61. The term came into being with the final rule that put the new Part 61 into effect on August 4, 1997, and the FAA didn't discuss it in the final rule's preamble.
The inspectors (and I), therefore, defined it literally - the original point of departure is that airport from which you begin a flight or series of flights. In other words, it's the aircraft's home airport. The pilot's purpose for making the flight has little bearing on how he (or she) logs the flight.
If the pilot's intention is to log cross-country time to meet the (fixed-wing) requirements for a private or commercial certificate or for an instrument rating, FAR 61.1(3)(ii) is clear on what constitutes cross-country time. It is "acquired during a flight - (A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft; (B) that includes a point of landing that was a least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and (C) That involves the use of ? navigation ? to the landing point."
If a pilot has a private pilot certificate, the hypothetical flights you suggested would not qualify as cross-country time because neither Airport B nor C is more than 50 nautical miles from Airport A. In both cases, the flight began - originated - from Airport A, and that is the airport from which the FAA starts its straight-line measurement.
The only exception to FAR 61.3 applies to student pilots. To meet the requirement of FAR 61.109(5)(ii), a student pilot must fly "One solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at a minimum of three points and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations."
Let's say Airport B is 45 miles north of Airport A, and Airport C is 45 miles south. If a student flew from Airport A to B, from Airport B to C, and from Airport C back to A, the flight would fulfill his solo cross-country requirement. The total distance is 180 miles, with legs of 45, 90, and 45 miles, and the 90-mile leg meets the 50-mile straight-line requirement.
If the student makes the same flight the day after he passes his checkride and earns his private pilot certificate, he couldn't count it as cross-country time toward his instrument rating because neither Airport B or C meets the straight-line distance requirement.
S.M. Spangler
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