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The Smartest Ways to Log Cross-Country Time in Southern California

Cross-country time is the requirement that shapes most time-building plans. You need it for a private pilot certificate, an instrument rating and a commercial certificate, and the FAA counts it differently for each purpose. Here's how to log cross-country time that counts, flying out of Redlands Municipal (KREI), with real distances to the airports around us.

The ground rules

In 14 CFR 61.1, cross-country time generally means flight time that includes a landing at a point other than where you departed, using dead reckoning, pilotage or electronic navigation to get there.

For the experience requirements of a private, commercial or instrument certificate, there's an extra condition: the flight must include a landing at a point more than 50 nautical miles in a straight line from the original point of departure. That's the number that matters for most time builders.

For the airline transport pilot certificate, the flight has to reach a point more than 50 nautical miles in a straight line from where it started, but it doesn't have to land there.

Airports within 50 nautical miles of Redlands

These are great training trips, but a flight that lands only at them doesn't count toward the 50-nautical-mile requirement. Distances are straight-line from KREI:

• Hemet-Ryan (KHMT), about 22
• Chino (KCNO), about 25
• Apple Valley (KAPV), about 30
• French Valley (F70), about 31
• Brackett (KPOC), about 32
• Victorville (KVCV), about 33
• Palm Springs (KPSP), about 35
• Bermuda Dunes (KUDD), about 48
• Barstow-Daggett (KDAG), about 49.5, so close and yet not enough

Airports just past 50

Each of these clears the bar from Redlands, and makes a good destination for a first cross-country that counts:

• Long Beach (KLGB), about 53
• Oceanside (KOKB), about 53
• Thermal (KTRM), about 56
• Carlsbad (KCRQ), about 58
• Torrance (KTOA), about 62
• Ramona (KRNM), about 64
• Lancaster's Fox Field (KWJF), about 66
• Gillespie Field (KSEE) and Montgomery-Gibbs (KMYF) in San Diego, about 76

The private pilot cross-countries

A private pilot certificate requires 5 hours of solo cross-country time, and one solo cross-country of at least 150 nautical miles total, with full-stop landings at three points and one leg of more than 50 nautical miles (14 CFR 61.109). From Redlands, Oceanside, Thermal and Carlsbad each work as the long leg. Your instructor will help you build a route that fits your experience, the weather and the terrain, and will endorse you for it.

The commercial cross-countries

A commercial certificate with an airplane single-engine rating requires 50 hours of pilot-in-command cross-country time, plus specific flights (14 CFR 61.129):

• A 2-hour day cross-country and a 2-hour night cross-country with an instructor, each to a point more than 100 nautical miles in a straight line from the original departure. From Redlands, that includes Imperial (about 109), Blythe and Bakersfield (about 124 each), Needles (about 132), Lake Havasu City (about 141) and Laughlin/Bullhead (about 143).
• A solo or pilot-in-command cross-country of at least 300 nautical miles total, with landings at three points, one of them at least 250 nautical miles in a straight line from the original departure. From Redlands, Phoenix-area airports such as Phoenix Deer Valley (about 254), Mesa Gateway and Casa Grande (about 278 each), or Salinas and Monterey (about 268 and 275) qualify. Prescott, at about 237, doesn't.

The instrument cross-country

The instrument-airplane rating requires 50 hours of pilot-in-command cross-country time, and one cross-country with an instructor under IFR, on a flight plan, of at least 250 nautical miles along airways or ATC-directed routing, with an instrument approach at each airport and three different kinds of approaches (14 CFR 61.65). Plan it with your instructor so it also builds the time and experience you need.

How to stack your cross-country hours

• Plan legs that count twice. A night cross-country to a towered airport can build commercial night requirements and pilot-in-command cross-country time at once.
• Choose the economical airplane for solo time: our Cessna 150 burns less fuel than our 172.
• Share the flying with another pilot, each logging the legs they fly, and use a safety pilot for simulated instrument practice on the way.
• Fly regularly, so each trip builds skill instead of shaking off rust.

Weather to plan around

• Marine layer mornings can close coastal airports while Redlands is clear.
• Santa Ana winds bring strong, gusty northeast winds and turbulence near the passes, mostly from October through March.
• Summer heat raises density altitude, especially at desert and mountain airports.
• Mountain passes such as the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes funnel wind on most routes east and north.

Always check the current sectional and Chart Supplement for every airport and route.

Make every flight count

Cornerstone Flight Academy rents a Cessna 172 and a Cessna 150 at Redlands Municipal Airport, by the hour or in blocks, to pilots building cross-country time toward their next certificate. Call or text (909) 330-4748, or visit flycornerstone.com.

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