[aviation news]
“I don’t think that qualifies as a cross-country.”
This phrase was uttered by a DPE who, reviewing the logbook of a private pilot applicant, noted that one of the flights logged as a cross-country came up a little short. The flight had been made from what was then known as Crest Airpark (S36) to Arlington Municipal Airport (KAWO) in Washington state. The DPE was local and familiar with the flight, as pretty much every locally trained pilot candidate made the flight to Arlington at least two or three times as they pursued their certificates.
A VFR sectional and plotter were used to double-check the distance. It looked short. Then, as a control experiment, SkyVector was applied, and it indicated the straight-line distance was 49.5 nm, and according to the DPE, it came up shy. The check ride was scrubbed because the applicant did not meet the experience requirement of five hours of solo cross-country time.
Moral of the story: Before you make the flight, double-check to make sure it meets the distance requirements as outlined in FAR Part 61.1 under the definition of cross-country flight for the aircraft and certificate you seek. And remember it is better to go longer than to come up short.
For private pilot and commercial candidates, the flight must include a point of landing at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nm from the original point of departure and involve the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point.
For sport pilots and rotorcraft, the distance required for a flight to be logged as cross-country time is 25 nm. For powered parachutes, a distance of 15 nm miles qualifies.
Please note that these hours, once added in your logbook, do not expire. I stress this because you don’t want to have to pay for hours twice. If you are a “return to flying” applicant and those cross-country hours are years in the past, be wary of the CFI or even the DPE who insists that time accrued years ago doesn’t count toward the experience requirements.
That being said, it is highly unlikely that you will still have the skills and proficiency required for solo cross-country flights, so expect to do at least one dual cross-country with a CFI to make sure you remember the procedures.
For the instrument candidates, pretty much every flight involves multiple instrument approaches. You will be navigating by using ATC-assigned radar vectors, GPS, and VORs. If there is an NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) along the route and an Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) in the airplane, learn to use that too. It’s like learning how to drive a stick shift, as it is an extra skill you can call upon if needed.
There are pilots who tell you they hate flying the NDB approaches because you have to monitor (listen to) the Morse code identifier for the station because there is no on/off flag all the way in to make sure it is still broadcasting. However, knowing how to fly such an approach might lead to a job someday, as there are island resort communities (Friday Harbor, Washington, is one) that rely on aircraft to deliver guests, and those aircraft shoot NDB approaches to get there.
Back Course Approach
Another approach that’s become more rare is the Localizer Back Course approach. According to the FAA’s Instrument Flight Procedure/Inventory Program, there are 40 LOC BC approaches in the United States. For comparison, there are 149 NDB/ADF approaches in the U.S.
If you get an opportunity to fly a back course in training take it, but note it may involve travel.
Many years ago, when I was training my first instrument candidate, the instrument syllabus included flying a back course approach. The problem was the nearest one was all the way in Yakima, Washington, a straight-line distance of approximately 94 nm and over the mountains.
It was December, but Mother Nature tossed us one of those rare, severe-clear days, so we launched early on that winter morning in the clear blue sky, doing a shuttle climb to get enough altitude to clear the mountains. When the altimeter’s 10,000-foot hash mark flag disappeared, cell phones were handed forward to capture the moment. It was our first time above 10,000 feet in an unpressurized airplane.
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