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Old 11-29-2012 | 06:04 PM
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JamesNoBrakes
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined: Nov 2011
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From: Volleyball Player
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200nm is a bit long, especially if you are not going to be flying that far on your solo cross country, but it is helpful to have the first one a little longer than 50 miles so you have time to get everything done and learn from it, rather than not be able to do any of the things you should do on an XC. I'd want to do around 3 before turning a student loose, and the most important part is experience flying into other airports. To that extent, extremely long stretches spent aloft doesn't really help if your navigation skills are decent, as you're going to have to figure out the pattern and land at the destination, and that's usually where most of the experience should be.

Trying to meet that all in one weekend is generally a bad idea as well. It's hard to actually take anything positive from an experience when you go right back out the next day and try to do it better. It needs a day or so to "sink in", and at this point, XC planning is likely a major effort for you.
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