Cross Country Differences
 

There are two columns for Cross Country time.

What is the difference between the two? When does log under Cross Country and 50NM Cross Country? I am confused, can you not log the C/X under the 50NM Cross Country column only?

I hope someone can shed light on this too.

FlyBoyShell - There was only one X/C column in my civilian logbook.
There is no place for x/c time in a military logbook.
I know now that the ATP paperwork requires 500 hours of x/c time. I heard that the FAA considers any flight that departs from one field and lands at antoher to be x/c and that any flight that goes more than 50 nm from the home field is a x/c flight. Is this correct? Practically all of my flights in the military have gone more than 50 miles from home base. How have others account for this time? thanks for your help.

USMCFLYR

I would love to find out more myself. My logbook(Gleim) has the two columns. C/X (all) column & (Over 50NM) Column.

Heres a little info. XC for your training and part 91 has the 50 nm requirement for it to be comsidered xc. A lot of Part 135 companies want 500 cross country time. Defined under part 135 xc is airport to airport. Helps when you are and instructor and have you students do touch and gos and an airport 10 miles away. It can be considered xc. Just my .02.

BWL -

So for the ATP paperwork - which factor would you use since you seem to give two distinct answers here under Pt 91 and Pt 135? I guess I could severly limit myself to time that I flew more than 50 nm AND landed at another airport.

USMCFLYR

My log book only has one XC column and I only log as XC those flights that are to airfields over 50nm away. Then again, at least 95% of my flights fall into that category.

Really, unless you are going for a rating or a 135 gig, does XC time actually matter?

Here is a question that just popped into my head. If a Naval Aviator takes off from a carrier, and that carrier sails 50nm before that Aviator returns (without landing someplace else), is that considered cross country?

There are even exceptions to the rule, which have been clarified in FAA legal interpretations. (I'll try to dig it up when I have time)

The biggest I can think of is long range stategic bomber crews. I know a guy that has flown missions from the US to the middle east, dropped bombs on various targets, then back to the US all without touching down.

Strictly speaking, none of that flight time was cross-country, since he didn't do a touch and go at an Iraqi airport... the FAA has allowed for an exemption in such case.

Personally, I only log those flights to an airport beyond 50NM away from my original departure point as XC. If I fly 51 miles, do a touch and go, fly 30 nm, do another touch and go, and then fly 100 nm back home, I'll log the entire time as XC.

OK - so you would interpret my situation as not x/c time when I take off from my home base, fly 150 nm away, do my mission for an hour or so and then return hom as x/c time. I would have had to at least had to do a T/G at some other field over 50nm away; or would I fall under that FAA exemption that you spoke og. I'm certainly not in the same category as those long range bomber crews that you are talking about. that is just crazy not calling that a x/c flight :)

USMCFLYR

USMC,

Lemme see if I can dig the interpretation out. I don't know that I would include flying to/from an MOA as x/c time, especially when 90% of the time is probably maneuvering flight in the box.

IIRC there was a "threshold" distance that activated the exemption (1000NM straight line distance maybe?).

I'll see what I can do.

Absolutely the time is spent flying around :) Very rarely do I fly from pt A to pt B. I'll have to find a way to do more of that!
I guess I was wondering when I was told that x/c was considered flying more than 50 nm from home field. Heck...I didn't even know that I would need to be logging x/c time for the ATP. I'm going to have a heck of a time figuring that out. I hope I have it:(

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

USMCFLYR

It's in 61.1

Cross-country Time: Must land at another airport and use navigation. No distance requirement.

Additionally...

For Aeronuatical Experience for PPL, COMM, IRA: Must also include one landing at an airport greater than 50nm (straight line) from the original departure point.

For an ATP: 50 NM distance is required, but NO landing.

For Military Pilots (who already hold an FAA COMM): Same as ATP.

USMC...unless there's something in your military flight logs which would contradict a claim of >50NM, I would just use your judgement and go back and estimate which sorties qualified.

Based on the distance to our ranges on almost every flight, I log X-country for any flight that doesn't involve FCLPs. Seems pretty defensible to me.

RA7777 -

Thanks for the info.
Like Milky says - unless we are hitting the landing pattern only or the PAR - every flight is more than 50 nm from home; so it shouldn't be to hard to figure out - just time consuming.

USMCFLYR

In short, any time you land at an airport that is not the one you took off from, you can log it as cross-country. The 50-nm rule applies when you're going for a rating.

Say you have 40 hours of flight time that was spent going to and from an airport 15 miles away. You also have 60 hours of flight time spent going to and from an airport 60 miles away...

You have 100 hours of cross country. You can put that on your resume, use it for 135 reqs, whatever... It's point to point and loggable as cross country.

HOWEVER, when meeting the requirements for a rating (commercial, ATP, etc.) you can only count the 60 hours that are >50nm. Because you are using those hours to meet the requirements for a rating.

You have 100 hours cross country, but only 60 are applicable when going for a rating.