300nm CPL route requirements
 

Hello Ppruners, today I flew what I hope was my 300nm CPL cross country. Now the requirements on cap 804 are not very specific but I feel I covered what they require one to do and that is to fly a total of at least 300nm between a base airfield and the land aways at 2 separate airfields. Now I easily covered 300nm today as I flew from EGJJ to EGBP then to EGTB and back home to EGJJ. I am very exhausted as it was an early start and a long day, but my mind needs to be put at ease....is there a minimum required distance between each airfield?
EGBP to EGTB is 45 nm as the crow flies and so this worries me a little. What do you fellow ppruners think of this?

Nope, no distance between airfields is specified, only that the total trip is 300nm and you land at 2 different airfields.

You could go to A - 5nm - B - 148nm - C - 148nm - A for all they care, using the field next door.

Thanks, that is really reassuring. I mean as much as I enjoy flying, being stuck inside that cockpit all alone for 5 hours or so was really exhausting (Plus the aircraft has skylight windows so I was essentially being ovenbaked in the process). All a valuable learning experience though.

Whilst the above is technically correct, in terms of the 'spirit' (if nothing else) in which the route is planned and executed, any triangular route which involves one overly short leg (eg 5 miles would seem relatively short to me) and therefore two very similar lengths is generally to be discouraged as one then becomes a near retrace of the other. As a FI, I always got my students (both PPL and CPL) to plan for a near perfect triangular route which has the added advantage of balancing out flight time between airfields.

Both have their advantages, I know people who would do a trip far in excess of the requirements, perhaps 500nm, stopping somewhere on the way back to satisfy the extra landing requirement. This builds in getting used to longer flights, more fuel planning for alternates and weather.

Either way, the hour building should be used wisely. The saying goes you can have 100 hours, or the same hour 100 times, so do different things and build real experience rather than simply satisfying the minimum hours requirement without actually going anywhere interesting.

Hi! May the 300nm nav be in 2 days? I did fews over 2 or more days. Byee

Afraid not, you must do the cross country in one day.

Anyone know if there is a requirement to land back at the original airfield? I am presuming not since the requirement is "a VFR cross-country flight of at
least 540 km (300 NM), in the course of which full stop landings at two
aerodromes different from the aerodrome of departure shall be made"

I did mine flying from Nantes (France) to San Sebastian (Spain) 229nm and then on to Viseu in Portugal, which was about 600nm in total.

I think someone mentioned in a different thread that 4 aerodromes have to be involved when flying those types of cross countries, though in my opinion only 3 should be needed and from what the text says only 3 are needed. That is a really cool route though Whiskey Bravo!

I have never understood why people try to make the requirements more complicated than they really are.

Did you fly VFR?
Did you follow a pre-planned route using standard navigation procedures?
Is Nantes-San Sebastian-Viseu more than 300nm?
Are San Sebastian and Viseu different aerodromes from Nantes?
What's the problem?

One word; instructor.

Or am I missing something?

You don't actually have to be on your own for the 300nm. I took a non-flying friend along for some company and made a day out of it. Break the trip up into 3 100nm legs and it's much more manageable.

I did North Weald - Welshpool - Gamston - North Weald. Got to see some interesting terrain and had a fantastic meal at Gamston and pottered round the Diamond hangers.

my advice would be plan and fly in accordance with the requirements. then hold onto your plogs and a photocopy of your charts until licence issue. job done.

How to measure the 300nm?
Straight line tracks between the airfields visited is common but
not actually specified.
Could have airfields very close together but fly to them via Turning Points
miles away, so that total distance flown is 300nm.

Is there a requirement to take a sheet to be signed at the aerodromes you land at like on the qxc for ppl issue,or is it just the proof of logging the flight in your logbook that suffices

You do not need to get sheets signed or have any actual proof to be honest, but a good idea may be to hold onto the receipts of where you went and present them a flight instructor at the flying school your flying out of (If you are flying form a flying school) and get the instructor to countersign your logbook

CPL X-Country Qualifier
 

Congrats on the X-Country Matt :ok:

Just done my CPL X-Country Qualifier yesterday. I'm in the US just now, so my route was:

Long Beach - San Luis Obispo - San Carlos - Oakland Intl

I never landed at the same airfield I originally took off from (because it's not required) and I never had 3 long flights because that's not required either. I landed at San Carlos in the San Francisco bay area before heading north-east over the SF bay at low level to Oakland via mid-span San Mateo bridge. It's a short distance between these 2 airports but it counts all the same!

I also have quite a few good pictures of the trip.

The weather was a tad warm at 43 degrees C at San Luis Obispo! We were in a C-152 with a headwind of about 5 knots the entire way north to SF... :yuk:

Congratulations to you too then. I might try and do a 4 aerodrome trip myself also, would be nice to have 3 different types of ICAO identifiers in my logbook in one sitting (Jersey, France, Belgium).
I don't know how you managed at 43 degrees C, my PA28 has a modified skylight roof and I was roasting at 18C! A temperature that hot must have quite an impact on the aircraft performance also.

It certainly was Matt! Especially when doing a long cross country as we required a lot of fuel in the tanks. With 2 up in a C152, full fuel and ridiculously hot temperatures, it's not just the T/O and landing distances that you have to consider... the climb performance also takes a massive hit.

When we left San Carlos we had to remain at 1000 feet to stay 500ft below class Bravo until we were just south of the airfield, then we had to climb to 2,000ft very fast to clear Palo Alto's class Delta airspace. We ended up routing around their airspace over the water because we weren't climbing fast enough. I think at one point we were only managing around 250ft/min!

Turbulentmonkey, where were you training al klgb? I just did my faa cpl at California Flight Center, my xc was long beach, buckeye az, Blyth, long beach. I hope that was your easa xc if you were two up, fas xc must be solo, they are hot on it. I couldnt use my uk 300nm xc for that reason. My checkride was monday, just missed you there

Saw above the reference to easa xc having to be done in a day, last time I looked that requirement seems to have been dropped under easa unless anyone knows better?