Twin Wasp

You need to keep reading. Once you have the commercial, as long as you go 50 miles from the departure airport, it's x-c.

(vi) For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements for an airline transport pilot certificate (except with a rotorcraft category rating), time acquired during a flight
(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;
(B) That is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and
(C) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation sydcstem

And it's not an interpretation that allows military pilots to count out and back flights, it's in the regs.

(vii) For a military pilot who qualifies for a commercial pilot certificate (except with a rotorcraft category rating) under Sec. 61.73 of this part, time acquired during a flight
(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;
(B) That is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nauytical miles from the original point of departure; and
(C) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems.

USMCFLYR

It isn't a military exemption, it is the rules regarding logging x/c flight time for the purposes for an ATP.
Some of us, myself included, still used the more conservative 50nm rule with a landing, for two reasons - 1) we didn't fully understand the regulations, 2) no questioning whether it counted or not as we used a more restrictive measure.

TW - beat me to it and with references!

tomgoodman

What if you launch from an Aircraft Carrier and stay in the traffic pattern while it steams 50 NM, then land on it?

JohnBurke

Whether you have your ATP or not is irrelevant.

For the purposes of counting cross country time toward your ATP, however, any flight with a landing other than the point of departure is a cross country flight. It doesn't matter if you're in the Space Shuttle, an airplane with floats, an amphibious aircraft, or you local Cessna rental. Please note that if you intend to use any of the Shuttles, you will be unlikely to get any cross country experience in the near or distant future.

For Part 135 experience, any flight with a landing at a point other than the point of departure may be considered a cross country.

If you're on floats, so long as you don't land at your point of departure, then you're golden.

Don't overthink the matter. Yes, if you land up-river or dow-river or on the far side of the lake, it's the same general body of water. That is irrelevant. You could depart on land on one side of a valley and land on the other, and say you're on the same body of land, or same county, state, country, or continent. Irrelevant. It's not the same point of departure.

Don't try to overcomplicate the matter.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...is%20Glenn.pdf

Gjn290

Under part 135, x-country is point to point. Doesn't matter if the airport you are flying to is only 5 miles from your departure airport or 200. It all counts the same. As for the ATP x-country requirements, I am not sure if the 500 hours has to be over 50NM, but I don't think it does. I do know that all point to point goes towards 135 IFR mins.

Rotor2prop

That info is not correct! It has to be over 50nm but doesn't require a landing. Point to point only counts for part 135 mins.

Read Twin Wasp's post straight from the regs.

JohnBurke

That's true. A cross country flight for the purposes of meeting the ATP requirements does differ; it must extend more than 50 nm from the original point of departure, but does not require a landing at other than the original point of departure. Some of the Grand Canyon tours would be good examples of that.

I stopped logging cross country a long, long time ago.