Q5: Qualifying Cross Country. Dual?

[GoneWest]

Visited many flying schools in the past - whilst driving around the Country.

Some of them have the student do the qualifying cross country route dual - others insist that the student should only go to airfields that they have NOT been to with an instructor.

Comments, for or against??

[tacpot]

Non-Instructor opinion again:

I think the custom I have come across at both schools I have trained at is the best compromise. This is to accompany the candidate to the first airfield, but not the second.

This ensures that the candidate is likely to have a successful first part of the trip (get them settled and happy), but still test their ability to find an airfield and integrate into the pattern successfully, when they have never been to the field previously.

At this stage of training, I think a school would be negligent in not insisting that a student flies to a field that they have not been to previously.

[incubus]

I did the route dual, then solo. At the time it seemed like an excellent way of doing it, insofar that it was a more gradual build-up to the qualifier and as such, a more effective training system.

Do not underestimate how big a leap the solo QXC really is. Whilst agreeing to some extent with the comments of tacpot, I am not sure of the wisdom of throwing a student in at the deep end at any point in their training. If the dual route is treated as ghosted (ie, the instructor is there as a backup, not as an instructor), you can fulfill your wish to check their abilities without the fear that they are being steered the whole way by the right-hand seat.

[Julian]

I did my QXC solo. I had visited the airfields before apart from one but the route I took to get to them I had not flown before, so I knew what most of the fields look like form the air but the nav was definitely tested as the route was completely new.

As far as I know the school I used always sends students solo on the QXC, I did hear of one student getting stranded due to an engine that decided it didnt want to start again so an instructoir had to fly out and pick him.