Definition of original point of departure for Cross country

[districtpilot]

Here is an old subject that I recently rethought. For a certificate or rating x country needs to be at greater than 50NM from the original point of departure. My question is this, what is the original point of departure? Say I am doing a run and I fly from Denver to Pueblo to Centennial back to Denver, is that to say that all is x country except the Centennial to Denver leg as an example?

 

[Trogdor]

As a 135 pilot, any point to point flight is Xcrty. You work at Key Lime?

 

[districtpilot]

Yes, I know that for 135, x country is point to point, I am studying for my ATP and even though I have much more than 500 hours XC by any definition, I was wondering if some of my legs that I logged that were under 50NM technically would not be XC for that purpose. I don't work for Key Lime, I used to go to college out there. I am on the East coast.

 

[minitour]

Good question. I guess it depends (maybe not)?

I logged my student/instrument/commercial cross countries as one line and did a few A to B to C to A where A and B were 50+ but C and A were not...it counted.

Now I usually log them twice. The flight going there gets one entry (A to B) and the flight home gets another line (B to A). So...if I went A to B to C....I doubt I could get C to A to go towards "XC time for ATP".

Excellent question....I hope I haven't just added confusion but I'm ineterested to know also.

-mini

 

[midlifeflyer]

Here is an old subject that I recently rethought. For a certificate or rating x country needs to be at greater than 50NM from the original point of departure. My question is this, what is the original point of departure? Say I am doing a run and I fly from Denver to Pueblo to Centennial back to Denver, is that to say that all is x country except the Centennial to Denver leg as an example?

You're thinking too hard. The "original point of departure" is the airport where you started the flight. This topic gets over-thought usually in the context of repositioning from the home base to try to avoid going somewhere new. The FAA's semi-official stance is that (1) there is no solid definition since what is a flight is in the mind of the beholder and (2) you gotta look at it on a case-by-case basis.

There is no serious question, however, on one point: intermediate landings and stops =do not= make one "flight" into many for xc flights with a >50 NM requirement.

If you're doing a run form DEN-PUB-APA-DEN you are in the typical round-robin situation and the whole flight is legitimately considered a cross country.