Long Solo Cross Country

Objectives

• Allow the student to exercise their cross country skills on their own

• Help satisfy the requirements of 14 CFR 61.109(a)(5)(i), which is five hours of solo cross country instruction

• Satisfy the requirements of 14 CFR 61.109(a)(5)(ii), which is five hours of solo cross country instruction

Session Details

The final solo cross country will is the long student cross country flight. This flight has a few critical criteria, including :

• Must be 150nm total distance

• Must have full-stop landings at three different points (minimum)

• Must have one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations

For a solo primary student this flight looms large, but isn’t as difficult as one might anticipate. By this point all the skills needed to navigate the flight successfully have been explored.

I’ll remind students of George Scheer’s article detailing how to prepare for a cross-country flight an an article written by George Scheer is a great place to start. I’d view it as mandatory reading prior to our first X/C flight. I will expect the student to fill out a cross-country flight log prior to the day of the flight. Obviously, it can only be filled out just so far as it has to be completed with the actual forecast winds on the day of the flight.

Resources/References

Articles

• [VFR Cross-Country Planning Packet]

Lesson Plans

These are individual lesson plans, keyed to the ACS, which discuss the topics included in this flight lesson. Each of the references below will have further references to additional FAA documents which address the individual topics in depth.

• 2.F : Airplane Weight and Balance

• 2.G : Navigation and Flight Planning

• 2.K : National Airspace System

• 2.L : Navigation Systems and Radar Services