Not to be a complete stick in the mud, here are some tricks
that DO work:
Cross country time is defined by distance and by landing.
ATP is the only rating that does not require a landing if you log a waypoint. This to accommodate the Military pilots on 20+ hr bombing missions.
Now nobody got any wiser by just flying in cruise under the hood, but you need the XC time.
So you fly to an airport an hour away and practice 3-4 approaches for another hour.
Do not land but go around and fly the published missed approach, enter the hold and request the next approach.
This is all legal loggable cross country time as you flew at least 50NM away first.
You land, have a break and now it's your buddy's turn to fly to your home airport and practice 3-4 approaches without a landing.
This is all perfectly legal and you get maximum benefit if you do this at night also.
You pay for two hours but fill 5 columns in your logbook.
Final warning: don't think you won't get caught with the safety-pilot grey area as you only need to come across one FAA Inspector with a hair up his @ss and you're toast......
I've done many log book audits and sometimes it's laughable what they try to get passed you.....
Worse, sometimes their Instructor tried to "help"....
