Commercial Pilot FAR Part 61

I am reviewing the requirements for a commercial pilots license. There
are two that are perplexing me. I ask it on the IFR forum simply
because it is the one I am most familiar with and folks here seem ver
FAR knowledgable (sorry if this is not the best place for it).

Part 61.129 (Aeronautical experience) Paragraph a (single engine):

Sub-para (4)(i) [relating to solo flight experience] "One cross-country
flight of not less than 300 nautical miles total distance, with landings
at a minimum of 3 points, one of which is a straight-line distance of at
least 250 nautical miles from the original departure point."

Does a cross-country need to be completed in the course of 1 day. For
example, if one flew this requirement by flying somewhere one day, and
then flying back 1 week later (with an additional stop thrown in there
somewhere)...does that work?

Sub-para (4)(ii) [relating to solo flight experience] "5 hours in night
VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings...at an airpott with an
operating control tower."

Are these really two separate requirements? One being 5 hours of night
VFR, and another for 10 TOs/Landings at a controlled airport? Or do the
TOs/landings have to be done in the course of night VFR?

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 23:57:37 -0500, "O. Sami Saydjari"
wrote:

I am reviewing the requirements for a commercial pilots license. There
are two that are perplexing me. I ask it on the IFR forum simply
because it is the one I am most familiar with and folks here seem ver
FAR knowledgable (sorry if this is not the best place for it).

Part 61.129 (Aeronautical experience) Paragraph a (single engine):

Sub-para (4)(i) [relating to solo flight experience] "One cross-country
flight of not less than 300 nautical miles total distance, with landings
at a minimum of 3 points, one of which is a straight-line distance of at
least 250 nautical miles from the original departure point."

Does a cross-country need to be completed in the course of 1 day. For
example, if one flew this requirement by flying somewhere one day, and
then flying back 1 week later (with an additional stop thrown in there
somewhere)...does that work?

Sub-para (4)(ii) [relating to solo flight experience] "5 hours in night
VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings...at an airpott with an
operating control tower."

Are these really two separate requirements? One being 5 hours of night
VFR, and another for 10 TOs/Landings at a controlled airport? Or do the
TOs/landings have to be done in the course of night VFR?

Yes, you can put time in between the start and finish of the 300 mile
cross country. The flight does not have to be completed in one day,
or one week, as long as you meet the dimensions of the requirement.

The take off and landings (10) must be done at night and solo. You
must be the only occupant of the aircraft, (unless you choose to do
the flights in a multiengine aircraft)

Does a cross-country need to be completed in the course of 1 day.

No.
This problem is also solvable by the way you log it. Many times I just log
the date of my trip out, but include my trip back home in the same log
entry, logging the total hours for the entire round-trip flight.


Sub-para (4)(ii) [relating to solo flight experience] "5 hours in night
VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings...at an airpott with an
operating control tower."

Are these really two separate requirements? One being 5 hours of night
VFR, and another for 10 TOs/Landings at a controlled airport?

Yes. For my commercial requirements, I had plenty of night VFR solo time, I
just needed a few more TO/Ls at a towered airport, so I simply flew up to
CWA one night and did about 8 TO/Ls. Controller started asking me if I was
"done" yet.

If you're still in WI and plan on going to Duffy, let me know, I'll dig up
my Commercial check ride report and post it for you.

Jim

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
news


Does a cross-country need to be completed in the course of 1 day.

No.
This problem is also solvable by the way you log it. Many times I just
log
the date of my trip out, but include my trip back home in the same log
entry, logging the total hours for the entire round-trip flight.


Sub-para (4)(ii) [relating to solo flight experience] "5 hours in night
VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings...at an airpott with an
operating control tower."

Are these really two separate requirements? One being 5 hours of night
VFR, and another for 10 TOs/Landings at a controlled airport?

Yes. For my commercial requirements, I had plenty of night VFR solo time,
I
just needed a few more TO/Ls at a towered airport, so I simply flew up to
CWA one night and did about 8 TO/Ls. Controller started asking me if I
was
"done" yet.

If you're still in WI and plan on going to Duffy, let me know, I'll dig up
my Commercial check ride report and post it for you.

Jim

I did my Instrument with Chris Anderson a great DPE.

To get your instrument rating you have to do a similar flight, except
one of the legs only has to be 200NM straight line and its dual. When I
did mine, me and my instructor made a stop at the second landing point
to fuel up, but when we tried to start the plane back up, it wouldn't
start. So we had to call the FBO from where we're based and they had to
send another plane over to pick us up and bring us back home. The next
day we were flown back to pick up the plane after the starter was
repaired, then flew it back to complete the lesson. I'm pretty sure
what we did was legal.

OK, now that we're talking about what's legal, there's the requirement
for a dual cross country under day VFR conditions. What if you made a
dual flight that met the distance requirement, and actual conditions
were day VFR, but you were under the hood?

Just a curious question

buttman wrote:
To get your instrument rating you have to do a similar flight, except
one of the legs only has to be 200NM straight line and its dual. When I
did mine, me and my instructor made a stop at the second landing point
to fuel up, but when we tried to start the plane back up, it wouldn't
start. So we had to call the FBO from where we're based and they had to
send another plane over to pick us up and bring us back home. The next
day we were flown back to pick up the plane after the starter was
repaired, then flew it back to complete the lesson. I'm pretty sure
what we did was legal.

Jim Burns wrote:

Yes.Â*Â*ForÂ*myÂ*commercialÂ*requirements,Â*IÂ*had Â*plentyÂ*ofÂ*nightÂ*VFRÂ*soloÂ*time,
I just needed a few more TO/Ls at a towered airport, so I simply flew up
to CWA one night and did about 8 TO/Ls.Â*Â*ControllerÂ*startedÂ*askingÂ*meÂ*ifÂ*I
was "done" yet.

I've noticed that the controllers at CDW know when I'm doing my night
currency work. They know when I'm done.

If I were to do 8 or 10 landings, they might be puzzled.

- Andrew

Matt Young wrote:

OK, now that we're talking about what's legal, there's the requirement
for a dual cross country under day VFR conditions. What if you made a
dual flight that met the distance requirement, and actual conditions
were day VFR, but you were under the hood?

Just a curious question

I'm not sure about "legal", but my CFI used that XC as an excuse to do some
fun pilotage and DR practice.

Rather: he used it as an excuse to have me do that while he snoozed grin.

- Andrew

wrote:

On 13 Apr 2005 17:43:03 -0700, "buttman" wrote:

To get your instrument rating you have to do a similar flight, except
one of the legs only has to be 200NM straight line and its dual

Is this something new?

I suppose it depends upon what you mean by "new". But I needed to do a long
dual XC for my IR a few years ago, although I no longer recall the required
distances involved.

- Andrew

Actually I just looked it up and I'm wrong. For an instrument rating
under part 141, you have to do a cross country with three points of
landing, with one leg at least 100 NM (not 200). I don't know about
part 61. Here's a link:

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory...D?OpenDocument