(ii) For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements (except for a rotorcraft category rating), for a private pilot certificate (except for a powered parachute category rating), a commercial pilot certificate, or an instrument rating, or for the purpose of exercising recreational pilot privileges (except in a rotorcraft) under §61.101 (c), time acquired during a flight—
(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;
(B) That includes a point of landing that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and
(C) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point.
The first airport of landing must be >50 nm from the point of departure. On some 3 leg XCs, the order of the landings makes the XC unusable for experience requirements.
Origin airport is A. Airport B is 35 miles north. Airport C is 15.1 miles north of airport B. and 50.1 miles from airport A. They are all in a direct straight line. If it is 50.1 miles from airport a to airport C, and you fly in this order from a to b to c and back, or if you just end at c. It meets the requirment for cross country for training. The regulation does not say that there has to be a 50 NM leg, just that there is a landing 50nm from the origin.
Yeah, there's the game of of:
Start at airport A, fly west 25 NM to airport B.
Decide to establish airport B as your origin airport for the XC flight.
Fly east 50.1 NM (overfly airport A) to airport C.
Fly west from airport C back to airport B.
Decide to establish airport B as your origin airport for the XC flight.
Fly east 50.1 NM (overfly airport A) to airport C.
Fly west from airport C back to airport A.
Done. You have a flight from B to C that is >50NM, but you never got farther away than 25.1 NM from you home airport A.
Probably will have a hard time justifying this later, though.
This would work but you could not log the first A to B leg. The cross country would occur from B to C to A.