Be sure you use the right rules
For example, to be eligible for apply for a private pilot certificate, you must have logged at least three hours of cross-country flight training and five hours of solo cross-country flight. Night cross-country time also is required if you're seeking a private pilot certificate.
To be eligible for a sport pilot certificate, you must have logged at least two hours of cross-country flight training and one solo cross-country flight. Similarly, to be eligible for a multiengine rating, you must log three hours of cross-country flight training and five hours of solo cross-country time. As part of an instrument rating application, you must show that you have logged 50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command. And so on.
But, what exactly is cross-country time?
A few of the regulations that outline the aeronautical experience required for a particular certificate or rating do set out the distance you must fly from your departure airport--and land--in order to log cross-country time. Also, and conveniently, the FAA defines the term for us in Federal Aviation Regulation 61.1(b). The regulation is multilevel, though, and requires you to read through it to make sure you are properly logging cross-country time. Let's try to get through the definition together.
The general definition begins by setting out four elements that must be met before you may consider logging "cross-country time." It is that flight time:
- Conducted by a person who holds a pilot certificate;
- Conducted in an aircraft;
- That includes a landing at a point other than the point of departure; and
- That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point.
So, purely local flights--when you take off and land at the same airport, such as when do pattern work to practice takeoffs and landings at your home airport--can never be counted toward any cross-country experience you may need. Whether or not you can log a flight to another airport, or log a flight that travels far enough away from the airport, as cross-country time depends on why you need cross-country flight time and the other airport's location relative to your original departure point.
Looking again at FAR 61.1(b), the regulation modifies the general definition a bit, depending on the reason you may be seeking cross-country time. That is,
��(ii) for the purposed of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements (except for a rotorcraft category rating) for a private pilot certificate, a commercial pilot certificate, or an instrument rating, or for the purpose of exercising recreational pilot privileges (except in a rotorcraft) under FAR 61.101(c), time acquired during a flight--
- Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;
- 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; and
- That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point.
To be eligible to apply for a rotorcraft category rating or an instrument-helicopter rating or recreational pilot privileges in a rotorcraft, or for a sport pilot certificate, the distance is reduced to 25 nautical miles. For a sport pilot certificate with powered parachute privileges or a private pilot certificate with a powered parachute category rating, the distance is reduced further to 15 nm. For an airline transport pilot certificate and for a military pilot who qualifies for a commercial pilot certificate, the flight distance must be more than 50 nm, but a landing is not required at a point 50 nm from the departure point.
So, to meet the cross-country time requirements for a private pilot certificate, commercial pilot certificate, or instrument rating, make certain that you flew a straight-line distance of more than 50 nm--and that you make a landing at a point that is more than 50 nm away. In a rotorcraft or in a helicopter or for a sport pilot certificate, the distance must be at least 25 miles and requires a landing. And, for those of you qualifying for an airline transport pilot certificate, you must assure that you have flown a 50-nm distance from your original departure point, but you are not required to land the aircraft in order to count it as cross-country time. The same goes for military pilots who qualify for a commercial pilot certificate.
Kathy Yodice is an attorney with Yodice Associates in Washington, D.C., which provides legal counsel to AOPA and administers AOPA's legal services plan. She is an instrument-rated private pilot.
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