How do I log this cross country?

blank18

New Member
Last night I planned a 90nm trip from KI19-KUNI

I get to KUNI and I can't get the lights on at all (I could see the airport beacon and knew it was the airport, I tried everything I could think of and double checked the AFD and NOTAMS etc.)

So I turn around and come home, to I19...total time 2.7 with only 1 landing at home.

Can I log this as a cross country without landing at an airport 50+nm away? (this is the requirement for the commercial rating cross countries)

Either way, how do I log it? (the from/to column...because I think I should get some credit for something, otherwise its going to just look like a local flight)
 
Last night I planned a 90nm trip from KI19-KUNI

I get to KUNI and I can't get the lights on at all (I could see the airport beacon and knew it was the airport, I tried everything I could think of and double checked the AFD and NOTAMS etc.)

So I turn around and come home, to I19...total time 2.7 with only 1 landing at home.

Can I log this as a cross country without landing at an airport 50+nm away? (this is the requirement for the commercial rating cross countries)

Either way, how do I log it? (the from/to column...because I think I should get some credit for something, otherwise its going to just look like a local flight)

From I19-I19. Now in the remarks you can address what happened to remind you that you flew over 50NM. This will count as XC time only for the ATP requirements as private and commercial require a landing at a distance of greater than 50NM. ATP only requires a flight of greater than 50NM. Sucks that you couldn't find an alternate airport closeby UNI so that you could get your XC requirement completed.
 
isnt part of your flight plan to find an alternate airport? I know my instructor made me fly to my alternate airport on my flight plan to see if i REALLY knew how to flight plan. I thought it was hard core, but i'm glad i had the experience.
 
Ya an alternate would have been in order, it's Ohio theres an airport every direction you look!!
Unfortunately it can't be logged towards your private or your commercial, sorry. :(
 
Bound to be a lot of people who would just "claim" you landed and then log it.

Right or wrong, lots of people would log it.
 
isnt part of your flight plan to find an alternate airport? I know my instructor made me fly to my alternate airport on my flight plan to see if i REALLY knew how to flight plan. I thought it was hard core, but i'm glad i had the experience.

Nothing says your departure airport can't be your "alternate". He obviously had the weather and fuel to make it back.
 
Well for the commercial x-country you would need to have an instructor with you. I Did both mine solo before I figured out they needed to be dual.
 
isnt part of your flight plan to find an alternate airport? I know my instructor made me fly to my alternate airport on my flight plan to see if i REALLY knew how to flight plan. I thought it was hard core, but i'm glad i had the experience.

well I never filed the cross country and when the worst TAF/metar along the route was winds at 4knts and scattered at 25,000..its Ohio VFR, you kind of just hop in the plane and go...

Well for the commercial x-country you would need to have an instructor with you. I Did both mine solo before I figured out they needed to be dual.

I guess I should have clarified this. This wasn't my official commercial FAR part 61 cross countries. I was just doing time building towards my 250 hours and figured I would do a cross country.

Nothing says your departure airport can't be your "alternate". He obviously had the weather and fuel to make it back.

The weather wasn't a problem, the fuel could have been. With 24.5 gal of usable fuel and I burned 2.7 hours, I was on the brink of burning into my night reserves...With the amount of time I wasted circling around the field trying to troubleshoot, I guess I could have gone to another nearby airport, but I hadn't planned fuel wise too much for an alternate..lesson learned, next time I'll have to plan as well as if I were doing an IFR plan, I guess you get lazy planning-wise when you live in ohio flying VFR over corn fields without any winds or clouds...
 
I hadn't planned fuel wise too much for an alternate..lesson learned, next time I'll have to plan as well as if I were doing an IFR plan, I guess you get lazy planning-wise when you live in ohio flying VFR over corn fields without any winds or clouds...

One time (actually, it was the long solo XC for my commercial--10 years ago at the ripe old age of 19) I got myself into a sticky fuel situation when I had to divert around some building weather. While I had legal fuel reserves in my planning, by the time I landed let's just say the amount of fuel left in the tanks scared me. From then on, I decided as a personal technique I was never landing with less than one hour fuel remaining in the tanks after diverting to my most distant planned alternate. I also decided I was going to plan fuel burn much more conservatively (for example, 10 GPH rather than 8.7 GPH). And, finally, I'd never pass up a free opportunity to put gas in the tanks on intermediate stops of a cross country (weight and balance permitting). In military/airline flying, it can be a challenge to get more fuel approved than what the flight plan calls for, now that they're micromanaging our fuel planning. But in private aviation when you're calling all the shots, my philosophy is that fuel in the truck is useless.

I know that's beyond the scope of what you were asking, but I thought I'd share a lesson learned to those who have yet to (and hopefully will never) get uncomfortable with the amount of fuel they have remaining.
 
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