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EASA or FAA CPL cross country flight - all legs must be on same day?

From here

Peter wrote:

Indeed there is no requirement for a circular flight for the CPL and, perhaps more controversially, there is no reg saying you cannot stop and sleep, and this means the requirement can be met on a normal journey across Europe which may people have in their logbook anyway.

I did wonder about that. If the qualifying flight can be assembled over two days then I definitely have it, if it needs to be on one day then probably not.

EGLM & EGTN

Graham wrote:

I did wonder about that. If the qualifying flight can be assembled over two days then I definitely have it, if it needs to be on one day then probably not.

I think it makes no sense to require the flights to be conducted within the same day. What if you land at your first destination at 23:30 and depart at 00:30 the next day? It was just a 1 hour stop over but the flight went into two days already.

https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Pilot-licences/Training/CPL-modular/CPL-(A)-modular-course—-aeroplanes/

a VFR cross-country flight of at least 540km (300 NM), in the course of which full stop landings at two aerodromes different from the aerodrome of departure must be made.

I guess the caveat here is the use of the singular form, “a VFR flight” not “flights”. So the whole thing must be considered “ONE” flight.

EDDW, Germany

It has come up before many times, in both the FAA and EASA contexts.

The FAA clarified this years ago in their FAQ which was taken down in 2004 but I have a copy saved here. However certain DPEs aggressively refuse to accept this, and ultimately this is what you have to satisfy.

I am not aware of any EASA ruling on this, and again it depends on what the examiner (or whoever examines your logbook) says. All CPL training in Euroland is done via FTOs and they usually operate a uniform programme where they knock off the whole set of flights in one day. There are some FTO instructors here who may know the current practice.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I would accept it at my flight school. I would consider it ONE flight until you come back to your homebase. It would be totally unreasonable to require it to be done on the same day considering unexpected weather, maintenance squawks and so on that might happen when you are away from base.

ESSZ, Sweden

I guess the whole point of the rule is to prove that you can do “reasonably long” cross country flights away from your base. If I was an ATO I would accept it. Not only that, I would argue it’s even more valuable to do the journey over several days because it means the pilot has been “on duty” for longer.

Another point of argument is, how are those 300 NM measured? Is it a Great Circle line from ARP to ARP? Is it the actual flight route planned? If ARP to ARP is 297 NM (not nit-picking, this was actually a case I encountered once) by the time you do the overhead join and circuit to land that’s already another 3 NM if not more.

EDDW, Germany

No requirement for same day but as others have said it has to be one ‘flight’ ie a continuous route with stops. I recommend people keep their SkyDemon or PLOG stuck in logbook to prove routing legs are 300+

Now retired from forums best wishes

Alpha_Floor wrote:

If ARP to ARP is 297 NM (not nit-picking, this was actually a case I encountered once) …

… then the rule will have been satisfied as your example meets the 540 km length requirement.

London, United Kingdom

Does the flight need to be done in the context of a CPL course? And solo?

For FAA it does not; you can use old flights done on a PPL, anywhere in the world, even with passengers.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Does the flight need to be done in the context of a CPL course? And solo?

That’s another thing. It doesn’t have to be solo, but you must have been PIC. And it doesn’t say anywhere it must be during CPL training, so it may be well done before that (as was my case).

Also number of passengers are not recorded in a logbook “officially” (I do “comment” on with whom I fly, but that’s me.). I believe it’s within the PIC’s responsibility to determine whether he’s legal to fly with pax or not and this is not recorded.

Last Edited by Alpha_Floor at 05 Feb 14:23
EDDW, Germany

Alpha_Floor wrote:

And it doesn’t say anywhere it must be during CPL training…

The requirement does come under flying training on integrated courses. See Appendix 3 to Part-FCL.

Peter wrote:

And solo?

Yes if the pilot is on an integrated course and lacks passenger-carrying privileges.

London, United Kingdom
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