Can you log cross country for all flights in a day if they were conducted in different airplanes?

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skywalker09

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skywalker09
It's well known you can log XC for all time flown in a day so long as a landing was made at an airport that is straight line distance >50nm from the departure point. But what about when there were multiple legs/flights that occurred in more than one airplane?

Scenario: Depart from airport A in airplane X and land at airport B, 30nm away. Switch to airplane Y and make a landing at airport C, 35nm away. Airports A and C are straight line 55nm away from each other. Then return to airport B in airplane Y. Switch back to airplane X and return to airport A. Since airports A and C were >50nm away and occurred in the same day, could you legally log all of this time as XC?

I'd never considered this situation before and thought it would be a fun one to debate.
 
Yes…legally logging cross country time does not require airports more than 50 miles away.
 
Ok, to be more clear. Can you count the XC time towards certificate requirements that require >50nm to be considered XC?
 
:) Be prepared to answer the question "did you switch planes because you wanted to, or because you broke the first one during the landing?"
 
Asked and answered.

FAA answer

Note that nothing appears to change depending on what you’re flying.
 
Albany Tom said:
:) Be prepared to answer the question "did you switch planes because you wanted to, or because you broke the first one during the landing?"
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I'm sensing a rationalization brewing.
 
I'm curious how someone is rationalizing that you couldn't log all cross country time as cross country time. It isn't uncommon for people to do exactly what is described, sometimes even in different categories of aircraft.

This sort of sounds like an inquiry from a student at a large flight school with multiple locations where they are using their students to ferry aircraft back and forth to different airports for various reasons.
 
I wonder how you justify multiple flights in different airplanes as separate segments of the same flight.
 
This summer I flew to an airport 50nm away then back to my airport. Then a few times a week for the rest of the summer and fall I flew to airports within 15 nm then back to my airport. Nothing in the regs say the flights have to be on the same day so it was all just one multi-month cross-country that started on the day I flew 50 nm.
 
Pinecone said:
I wonder how you justify multiple flights in different airplanes as separate segments of the same flight.
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“Fastest cross-country flight” with basically no fuel stop. Have plane B (and C, etc.) waiting already fueled. When you’re on short final, they fire up and have it waiting. You shut down, run to the new cockpit, and bam, you’re off again!
 
Pinecone said:
I wonder how you justify multiple flights in different airplanes as separate segments of the same flight.
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I think you've nailed the essence of the question, one not contemplated in any existing official interpretation.

I don't have an answer but it reminds me of the pilot who, in a cross country discussion said they consider their entire logbook one long cross country.
 
Sounds almost like the zoo a friend’s son went thru getting his ticket.
Flew the Cub for PP, hoped out of it and into the T-6 for his HP check, then into the Baron for his multi. After lunch, into the Grumman TBM for his LOA, then to the PBY for his multi, seaplane and type ride.... All on his 16th birthday.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I think you've nailed the essence of the question, one not contemplated in any existing official interpretation.

I don't have an answer but it reminds me of the pilot who, in a cross country discussion said they consider their entire logbook one long cross country.
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My first XC was in 1994. Since then, all of my time has been XC. Some of it solo, some dual, many different airplanes, a break of 7 years once, departing from many different airports in many different airplanes.

Reductio ad absurdum, maybe? I don't know, never took Latin nor am I one of you fancy lawyer-types.

Similarly, I have a hard time calling the OP's example a "XC" in multiple different airplanes. But I admit I'm not entirely sure why, just that the definition of "flight" seems like it shouldn't allow a change of airplanes, but there's no legal reason why not. I mean, if someone flew across the U.S., changing planes every 30 miles pony express-style, I'd also have a hard time saying "nope, not a XC". So I guess I just talked myself into the "seems okay to me" crowd.
 
Pinecone said:
I wonder how you justify multiple flights in different airplanes as separate segments of the same flight.
Click to expand...

That seems like it may be the intended inquiry, but that wasn’t what was asked.
 
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