Solo XC question - help!

Doss79 · Post by **Doss79** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:14 pm

Hello,
About to do solo XC and was a little confused about the requirements. I'll be flying to airport A from a friend's grass strip to pick up fuel. It's only 10nm away. Then from Airport A, I'll be heading to Airport B which is 50nm away, then I'll pick up fuel there and then head to Airport C as my final destination. The total distance is around 75nm, which is enough for the minimum.

My question is:

Do I need to get my logbook signed by someone at airport A, B, and C? Or, only B and C? Or, not at all? Will fuel receipts do? The problem is that sometimes these airports at not staffed and there is no one around!

Thanks for any clarification.

Jim Stewart · Post by **Jim Stewart** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:43 pm

The FAR only requires that you fly the cross-country. There's no mention of signing logbooks at each leg. OTOH, your instructor is within his rights to include any additional requirements that he/she sees fit.

I just finished my long cross-country for my PP. My instructor required, in addition to the FAR requirements, that I land at 2 airports that I had never visited before, one of which had to be towered. He requested that I get signatures if available. They were and I did.

AZPilot · Post by **AZPilot** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:42 pm

Jim Stewart wrote:The FAR only requires that you fly the cross-country. There's no mention of signing logbooks at each leg. OTOH, your instructor is within his rights to include any additional requirements that he/she sees fit.

I just finished my long cross-country for my PP. My instructor required, in addition to the FAR requirements, that I land at 2 airports that I had never visited before, one of which had to be towered. He requested that I get signatures if available. They were and I did.

Good answer.

The legality is that it is your logbook and YOU are attesting to what's in it. Flying is still on the honor system.

That said, the additional signatures will make for some nice reminiscing years from now.

Sheepdog · Post by **Sheepdog** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:03 am

On one of my solos, the operator at a small field offered to sign my logbook, and would, I think, have been offended if I had declined.

Subsequent discussions with my instructor agreed with what has been said above, but apparently, perhaps it was once traditional to get signatures where you landed. My instructor wasn't bothered by the signature, there was, he said, no harm in it. And it kept my host happy.

FastEddieB · Post by **FastEddieB** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:15 am

I never required any sort of "proof" that my students had been somewhere they said they had, nor do I remember asking for such proof.

Not that it's a bad idea.

The worst I had happen was when I happened to be at the airport when a student returned from his long cross-country - with another student in the right seat! I was not a happy camper, and made him do it over again.

Overall, honesty is the best policy, but I guess it can't always be assumed!

drseti · Post by **drseti** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:36 am

FastEddieB wrote: The worst I had happen was when I happened to be at the airport when a student returned from his long cross-country - with another student in the right seat! I was not a happy camper, and made him do it over again.

You're far more forgiving than either the FAA or I, Eddie. I would have made him find another instructor.

ibgarrett · Post by **ibgarrett** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:48 am

A funny one my CFI passed along to me once when we were discussing the X-country flights... he was supervising a series of students that needed to build up some x-country time. He'd send off his students, they'd go away for several hours and then return back to the home base. This worked for a while until he got a call from a nearby airport that called trying to figure out what was going on with some of their airplanes.

When he asked what they meant, they informed him that their planes were arriving, parking with the plane running, at which time they'd get out, tie the plane down and leave the airport for a little while and come back. The FBO couldn't figure out what the deal was.

So the next time my CFI sent these guys off, he drove to the nearby airport, and sure enough there were the planes these guys took off in to do their X-country with, just sitting there running.

Needless to say, they were a bit shocked when they came back to fly back to their home airport to find my CFI sitting there waiting for them. A. my CFI was pissed (and who could blame him?) and B. they lost a ton of time.

The reason why they did it? Well, flying x-country was boring, so they figured they could just park the airplane for a while and let the hobbes meter keep turning while they went and did something fun... *gulp*!

Brian

Sheepdog · Post by **Sheepdog** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:42 pm

Zero points to the instructor for imagination....

How much more fun it would have been to arrive just after the students went off to do whatever they did while waiting for the Hobbs to tick away, and fly the airplane back to the home base! That would have left the students in a bit of a quandry not covered in the AIM!

I knew someone who worked in a boarding school. One summer a few kids were slipping out of their dormitory, going to the school pool, shedding pyjamas, and having a quiet late evening swim. Once such evening they found no pyjamas after their swim. They tended to stay in their dormatories after that.

zaitcev · Post by **zaitcev** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:04 pm

I heard about cheaters like that, but usually they stayed with the airplane and read a magazine or something (it was before Nintendo DS became widespread). To leave a plane running, that's just insane IMHO.
-- Pete

ibgarrett · Post by **ibgarrett** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:12 pm

Oh trust me - I just cannot imagine getting out of a running airplane and trying to tie it down... I need all the experience in the air I can get... so I just couldn't imagine what these doofuses thought they were going to do to compensate for the experience with.

drseti · Post by **drseti** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:17 pm

Paying Hobbs time and not flying is like paying a prostitute and not -- oh, never mind, this is a G-rated forum.