Originally Posted by FlyJSH

IIRC, for an atp, cross country only requires you to fly to a fix, not land. Otherwise a military pilot who takes off from xyz, flies a ten hour mission, and lands at xyz would not be able to count that flight towards the atp. A smart instructor can plan many lessons to fly to a fix 50 miles away without negatively impacting the student. It may not be 500 hours, but should be enough to meet 135 mins, get a 135 job, and get the remaining xc. But all that requires one to know the regs, work the system, and bust his tail.