cross country flight definition

[vandereydt]

How does the FAA define a cross country flight?

thx
Ronny

[Flyingmac]

Don't know, but in the UK many circuits could be logged as such.

[Radix]

..........

[ShyTorque]

Which puts Flyingmac's comment just about on the head of the nail. Too many instructors teaching Boeing 747 circuits to basic students in Cessnas.

[vandereydt]

I understand that to start IFR training one needs 50 hours of cross country flying.
Hence my questions which flights do qualify as cross country
I assume there s a minimum distance required

thx
Ronny

[Prop swinger]

From Part FCL:

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

So no minimum distance.

[9 lives]

Quote:
‘Cross-country’ means a flight between a point of departure and a point of arrival following a pre-planned route, using
standard navigation procedures.
So no minimum distance.

I opine that "standard navigation procedures" could not be begun over a distance of less than a few miles in a straight line. You need at least this to establish your planned heading, and then find the necessary geographical references to assure that you are maintaining it. At least one checkpoint confirmed passing on your flight log. I would not be content with a "cross country" where you maintained visual contact with the runway from which you departed.

[vandereydt]

found it
14 CFR 61.1

It s a flight with more than 50 NM straight line distance

Logging Cross-Country Time - AOPA

Thanks everybody

Ronny

[proudprivate]

50 NM for the FAA IFR.

But logging is a bit of nightmare, because for every single rating you have different requirements. For the ATP you also need 50 NM straight line but you don't need to land at another airport.

What I did in the end was make a lookup table in excel with the coordinates of the airports and then write a little function that computes the distance between airports assuming a pythagorean triangle using the cosine of the average latitude to determine the east-west part of the triangle (the north-south part is a big circle). Good enough to determine if something was bigger than 50 NM or not.

[al_renko]

Kitfox Mk2

Also,are you allowed to fly the 50Hrs cross country in a Kitfox Mk2,as it is stilled defined as an "Aeroplane"?

[this is my username]

Yes - as long as it meets the FAA definition of an "airplane" then its fine - so you could do it in an aircraft that meets the UK (or European) definition of a microlight (but be careful that he FAA excludes aircraft that meet the US "ultralight" dfinition for some of the requirements).

If you are planning to do a US licence you will need too become familiar with the FARs - this wouldn't be a bad time to start. They are available online or you can buy the book.

[phiggsbroadband]

.
Quote...


What I did in the end was make a lookup table in excel with the coordinates of the airports and then write a little function that computes the distance between airports assuming a pythagorean triangle using the cosine of the average latitude to determine the east-west part of the triangle (the north-south part is a big circle). Good enough to determine if something was bigger than 50 NM or not.


A bit like drawing a circle on a Chart, I suppose....


.

[Heston]

[proudprivate]

A bit like drawing a circle on a Chart, I suppose....

but then without the chart; or across two charts; and for about 500+ entries at once without having to do any tedious work.