Originally Posted by
rickair7777
FAR 61.1:
XC = Flight which involves landing at a point other than the departure airport.
XC for PPL/IR/CPL aeronautical experience = Flight which involves landing at a point other than the departure airport which is > 50NM straight-line from the point of departure.
XC for ATP aeronautical experience = Flight which is > 50NM straight-line from the point of departure (no landing required, this provision exists because military pilots usually RTB after a mission without landing anywhere else).
So...
- To log generic XC time, you need to land somewhere else.
- To use that time for PPL/IR/CPL you need to land > 50NM away.
- You can also log XC for the ATP rating without a landing if you fly >50NM from base. I would almost think you should log this separately from generic XC time since it can't be used for things like 135 requirements.
I think but am not 100% certain that the generic definition applies to 135 requirements also. Anyone?
Thanks for that breakdown Rickair777.
I know that is has been discussed to death in other threads, but this is a good concise wrap-up.
This is something that many military pilots (at least that I talked too) didn't understand until preparing their ATP forms. In my case, I was eventually led to believe that it DID require the landing at an airport greater than 50 nm away, so I went back through my logbooks and calculated those flight and then started logging in such a way too. As you said, MANY of my flights takeoff and return from the same field so I started to get a little worried about that 500 x/c requirement. At a later time I found out the correct method (as you state above) is the distance greater than 50 nm and almost all of my flights meet that requirement.
jcaplins - your interpretation might be correct, and I'm no judge on how to try and read into the FARs, but even reading your definition would not make me comfortable. I take on it, the whole "point of landing" part, is that my wheels need to touch the ground and when I come back to fill out the paperwork, I can log X number of 'landings'.
For you military guys who are getting ready for the ATP - take note. Understanding this makes it much easier to fill out the required forms.
USMCFLYR