EASA Cross Country time

[felixflyer]

Hi

I have been speaking to a few European schools lately and they have all come back asking me for a breakdown of my hours. One thing they seem to ask is Cross Country hours.

I am aware of the requirement for the CPL qualifier flight and also the FAA 50nm landaway definition but was not aware that EASA defined this other than being outside the circuit.

I have not logged anything regarding XC or not, so before I go through my logbook, does anyone know if there is an EASA definition of 'Cross Country' and what this is?

[BillieBob]

Before EASA there was no UK definition of a cross-country flight except in the specific context of the privileges of an AFI. Post-EASA, however:

FCL.010 Definitions
‘Cross-country’ means a flight between a point of departure and a point of arrival following a pre-planned route, using standard navigation procedures.

[felixflyer]

OK, I did see that but that could sum up pretty much every flight in my logbook.

[BillieBob]

Note that there is no requirement for the point of departure and the point of arrival to be different nor for either to be an airfield. However, there is a requirement for pre-planning (eg, a line drawn on a map) and the use of navigation procedures. A bimble around the local area will not qualify.

[felixflyer]

Well a circuit procedure could be classed as a pre planned route and standard navigation procedures could be VFR in the circuit but I get what they are trying to say.

It means every flight outside the circuit basically for me as I never go off without a planned route to somewhere.

[nebojsar]

When you are planning a route, at least in my country, you need to fill flight plan, according to plan you need to make nav log, to do other prep (call local met office for weather, call respective tower to announce that you are going on route or starting your flight plan, to get QNH and basic info). If I'm not wrong all of that is not necessary when in traffic pattern. Point with cross country flying, at least in my case was to get know some other places around, to strengthen situational awareness and to enjoy one specific dimension of flying (without FI to press you do this, do that). Also this helped me to strengthen my decision making as you are PIC and have to deal with all stuff which come to you (constant frequency change, area control change, entering airfield areas with high activity, avoiding/be aware of incoming traffic etc). Also for me was the moment to learn my country topography, to learn to land on other airfields as they can be specific (strong winds, high mountain nearby, shorter strip, narrower strip). If you ask me hour building was for me best experience so far.

[felixflyer]

I get all that and I am way past hour building. I have never really been asked for XC time in the UK other than the CPL qualifier so don't have a record in my log book.

A couple of European schools have asked me how much of my PIC time is XC though.

[rudestuff]

How can you not know if you've got cross-country time or not? If you go from point a to point b then it should be in your logbook surely? They are probably asking because you need 50 hours cross-country PIC to start your instrument rating