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2 Answers

Cross country

Asked by: 4799 views , , ,
FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Student Pilot

I am working with a student who is also a friend and as a cfi have a question about a situation. Normally as an independent instructor I still follow the Jep syllabus as I light the way it is laid out and builds upon itself.  I have a friend who was taking lessons from another instructor a couple of years ago but did not finish after soloing, so I  trying to help him finish up. He is getting ready to solo now and has no problems flying the aircraft. My question is, normally I teach the cross country portion near the end as most syllabus have it but I am going to pick up a new aircraft several hours away from our location and was wondering what the general consensus is on using the ferry flight home as his 3 hours of xcountry instruction and 100 mi plus xcountry? Does a cross country have to return to the starting point for training purposes? Is there an actual FAA order of events or is it instructor discretion?

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2 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Jul 10, 2014

    There is no requirement for the XC to return to the starting point, and there is no FAA required order of events.

    This plan can work fine as long as the student is ready for the XC anyway – you’ve gone over flight planning, navigation, diversions, all that stuff, and the student plans the flight – and then you follow up and do all that stuff – timing checkpoints, ground speed calculation, etc. You did not imply this at all, but be careful it doesn’t become “hey let’s go pick that plane up and it counts as your XC” without actually doing all the normal XC procedures and training items.

    Also, you use the word “ferry flight” but I assume you’re not using it in the strict sense of a “ferry” flight under a “ferry permit” (“special flight permit”), that would preclude non-essential personnel on board.

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  2. David Eberhardt on Jul 21, 2014

    dittos Russ …

    Only you can judge if the student should do some x-country at his/her stage of training. Despite such considerations, extra x-country training would not be a bad thing. Most students get minimal exposure to it anyways. Operating at and from different airfields is probably one of the best ways to increase skill and confidence. I felt under prepared for x-country when I got my private (years and years ago).

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