Originally Posted by
jcaplins
Now for my picky part... you don't actually have to land someplace other than your point of departure; you just need to go to a point of landing, ie and airport (not just some landmark), if you are logging it as XC time towards the ppl, com, or inst.
Not sure where you are getting that, but I can 100% guarantee that the FAA will expect a LANDING, not just a flyover. And they will win the appeal too, the wording as it stands is clear enough as to the intent I think.
FARs are admin law, not criminal or civil law where the wording is critical and appeals can be won on such grounds. In admin law, the FAA can hold you to their intent unless there is a clear contradiction of that. The NTSB almost always weighs in favor of the FAA on these sorts of appeals.
It is a legit grey area as to whether a touch-and-go counts as a landing. I think it does, since the they spell out the need for a full stop elsewhere in the regs when they require one (night currency). But just to be safe I always did a full stop or stop-n-go for training XCs.