141 Private Night Requirements

[jrh]

In response to the OP, and everyone else...

Who says cross countries have to end back where they started? It's more fun and better experience if they don't!

When I worked in a college flight program, it wasn't uncommon for me to be training my friends. Sometimes we'd fly somewhere on Friday afternoon, hang out for the weekend, then fly home on Sunday night.

Other times, we'd load up three or four people in the plane and each person would knock out a requirement of some sort during a really long cross country. For instance, first person would fly from Point A to B. Second person would fly Point B to C. Third person would fly from C back home to A. This method is good for seeing large parts of the country and everybody learning a lot, all while saving money.

Even tonight, I'm breaking a trip in to two legs in order to meet the night XC requirement. We'll fly down to Kansas City during the day, have dinner, then fly home at night. The leg from KC to home will count for the night XC because it's over 100 miles at night.

Out and back cross countries are boring!

 

[Douglas]

In theory yes,

In reality however, at every 141 school I've been involved in the quality of instruction varied widely.

You don't see that we are talking about two different things?

You are talking about the individual and the quality of the lesson.
I am talking procedure.

 

[Douglas]

Out and back cross countries are boring!

Ah, but when you become 141 you have a set of approved x-c's.
You don't get an option.
Since you are in your beginning phase, maybe you can write one-ways into your syllabus.

 

[USMCmech]

You are talking about the individual and the quality of the lesson.
I am talking procedure.

I've seen procedures, standards, vary wildly as well. I've only been involved with one school where anything resembleing standardization existed.

 

[Douglas]

okay.

 

[Roger, Roger]

Ah, but when you become 141 you have a set of approved x-c's.
You don't get an option.

Not always. All our 141 TCOs are written such that you just need to meet certain requirements on the x-country. i.e, 2x 100 NM legs, with one leg day, one leg night, stopping in class B. I've done a lot of stringing cross countries together in 141 syllabi, and those have been the most enjoyable, challenging, and exciting flights I've ever been on, both for myself as the CFI and for my students.

 

[Douglas]

Cool, I am going to have to dig into our stuff to see what I can do.

 

[Roger, Roger]

Yeah. It puts some more burden on the CFI because you have to make sure that your chosen destinations meet all the TCO requirements and the 141 airport requirements (ie, windsock, long enough runway), but it's really not bad as long as all of your instructors are crystal clear on the requirements.

 

[Douglas]

and nobody else knows them