Originally Posted by
BeardedFlyer
I realize you change bases once in a while but how much X-C time do u get? Aren't you taking off and landing at the same airport most of the time or do you fly outside of a 50 mile radius so it can count toward the ATP X-C time?
You relocate to new projects constantly thru the season. Projects are on average a week's worth of flying (barring bad weather). Some are less than a day of flying, and sometimes you'll be on one project for a month or more. It's all luck of the draw.
As far as cross country time, you're generally going to be w/in 50nm when working on projects, but the bigger projects often require you hiking 30-40nm away to reach the furthest plans. In that case just find an airport to refuel at that's over 50nm. Same idea when looking at point to point x/c for meeting 135 min's, you can always gas up at a different airport than you left from. Beyond that, 99.9% of your relocation flights between projects will be well over 50nm. My first relocation I flew was from Batavia, NY to Denver, CO. After a week of dodging weather I landed in Erie County, CO with some 20-25hrs cross country, 3-4hrs actual, and a couple very legit instrument approaches. Quite a change from burning up the traffic pattern with students just a month earlier.