min. required cross country range for PPL?

P

PPL747

Pre-Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2019
Messages
47
Display Name
Display name:
747
besides the long cross country of total 150 nm and one leg min. 50nm distance, is there a minimum range for the other cross countries, dual and solo? I have logged dual from point A to point B with distances of 7.5, 25, and 31.5 nm, would those hours be considered cross country?

Thank you all for sharing from your knowledge and experience
 
While any flight from airport to airport is technically a cross country, for the purpose of the private pilot certification, it needs to be 50nm or greater from the origin.
 
https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/regulations/logging-cross-country-flight-time/

So does each flight leg have to be over 50NM for it to count as "cross country" time under this definition? Nope! According to this 2008 Legal Interpretation by the FAA, as long as one point of landing is a straight line distance of at least 50nm away from the original point of departure, the entire route can count as "cross country" flight time for certificate training requirements under FAR 61.1(b)(ii).


There's one catch to this 50NM rule, however. Don't forget that under FAR 61.109, private pilot students must fly a 150NM long cross country with at least one entire leg greater than 50NM straight line distance takeoff to landing, among a few other requirements. Similarly, commercial pilot students have a two hour long cross country experience requirement that asks pilots to include a single leg of at least 100NM takeoff to landing, among a few other requirements.

This specific experience requirement does not allow for any intermediate stops during the respective 50NM or 100NM leg of flight. Don't miss this - it's stopped many check rides before the oral starts. Check out this 2009 FAA Legal Interpretation to learn more.
 
TommyG said:
I have my students do around 250 to 300 for their long x- country.
Click to expand...
as should most CFI, i dont get the logic of i am required to go 150 miles, so i will choose 151 nm. i wish my CFI would let me go far enough, but he didnt.. which i made of right after my license (or is it called certificate this week on POA?)
 
Thank you all for your input. It is very helpful and appreciated
 
WannFly said:
as should most CFI, i dont get the logic of i am required to go 150 miles, so i will choose 151 nm. i wish my CFI would let me go far enough, but he didnt.. which i made of right after my license (or is it called certificate this week on POA?)
Click to expand...
My long XC was 166. Would further have been better? I don’t know, possibly. But the plane I was in didn’t have a nav unit so it was all dead reckoning for me. I also opted for the shorter distance as I knew other students needed the plane after me and more importantly at the time, I was trying to save money. I just did a 125 mile round trip flight with a garmin 430 in the plane and it was easy to see how some pilots could become children of the magenta line. Glad I did mine via the old method but happy we live in a time when we have items to help reduce the workload if my brain starts getting saturated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top