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8 Answers

Commercial cross country requirement

Asked by: 6927 views FAA Regulations

According to 61.129 for commercial pilots there must be two training flights: One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in daytime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure;

(iv) One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure;

Do you have to spend the whole 2 hours in the air, what I mean is could I fly from my home airport to one that is 100nm away and takes an hour+ to fly to, land and come back to my home airport for a total of more than 2 hours?

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8 Answers



  1. Matthew Waugh on Aug 03, 2012

    I *THINK* looking up the FAA definition of flight will answer your question – but your question is a bit weird, so maybe I don’t understand it.

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  2. John Parsons on Aug 03, 2012

    Or to be more precise, look at the definition of “Flight Time” in FAR 1.1– it starts when the plane moves under its own power for the purpose of flight, and ends when it comes to rest after landing.

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  3. James on Aug 03, 2012

    What I am saying is could I land at an airport 100nm away, taxi back, and takeoff to come home. Each way would take an hour

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  4. Matthew Waugh on Aug 04, 2012

    Ah – yes – that’s how almost everybody does it.

    If you don’t have to return the plane to it’s point of origin then there are alternatives, and I suppose you could lawyer it to death and claim that as long as you landed at a point more than 50NM away it was a cross-country and as long as, at some point you were more than 100NM from your point of departure that you would meet the requirements. But most people assume that the 100NM requirement is satisfied by landing at a point at least 100NM from the point of departure.

    You have to land somewhere – it’s not a cross-country if you don’t, so might as well make it at the farthest point of the flight.

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  5. James on Aug 13, 2012

    So it is allowed to fly to an airport 1hour and 100nm away, land, taxi back, and depart to the original airport. Totaling 2 hours, and flying to an airport 100nm or more away.

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  6. Jim Post on Aug 22, 2012

    You must fly to and land at a destination airport that is at least 100 miles from your departure airport. The round trip must be at least 2 hours. It can be more difficult than that.

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  7. Jim Post on Aug 22, 2012

    You must fly to and land at a destination airport that is at least 100 miles from your departure airport. The round trip must be at least 2 hours.

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  8. Naaman Beck on Nov 09, 2012

    Also be careful the FAA doesn’t count the time you are sitting on the ground. If you were to do the flight and made it 2 hours even, then you have to subtract your taxi, run-up, and all the time you were on the ground, so your cross country column would be lower than the 2 hours.

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