Prepare for: Solo Cross-Country
Flying cross-country on your own: the endorsements you need, planning and the required long solo cross-country.
Your CFI's syllabus and your airplane's POH come first. This page is a general study aid to help you show up prepared.
What you'll do
- Before each solo cross-country, your instructor reviews your planning and endorses your logbook for that flight (61.93).
- Plan the route, checkpoints, fuel and alternates, and get a full weather briefing. Use your personal minimums and your instructor's limits.
- Open a VFR flight plan and consider flight following.
- Keep your nav log going: note times at checkpoints, update groundspeed and fuel, and decide early if you need to divert.
- Private requirements (61.109(a)(5)): 5 hours of solo cross-country time, and one solo cross-country of 150 NM total distance with full-stop landings at three points and one leg of more than 50 NM straight-line distance.
- Close your flight plan when you land, and call your instructor if they asked you to.
The standard you'll be held to
Quoted from the current FAA Airman Certification Standards for each level that tests this.
Private Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-6C)Task PA.VI.A · Pilotage and Dead Reckoning
- Prepare and use a flight log.
- Navigate by pilotage.
- Navigate by means of pre-computed headings, groundspeeds, elapsed time, and reference to landmarks or checkpoints.
- Use the magnetic direction indicator in navigation, including turns to headings.
- Verify position within three nautical miles of the flight-planned route.
- Arrive at the en route checkpoints within five minutes of the initial or revised estimated time of arrival (ETA) and provide a destination estimate.
- Maintain the selected altitude, ±200 feet and heading, ±15°.
Private Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-6C)Task PA.I.D · Cross-Country Flight Planning
- Prepare, present, and explain a cross-country flight plan assigned by the evaluator, including a risk analysis based on real-time weather, to the first fuel stop.
- Apply pertinent information from appropriate and current aeronautical charts, Chart Supplements; Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs) relative to airport, runway and taxiway closures; and other flight publications.
- Create a navigation plan and simulate filing a VFR flight plan.
- Recalculate fuel reserves based on a scenario provided by the evaluator.
- Use an electronic flight bag (EFB), if applicable.
Prepare the night before
- Plan the route with the flight planner and a full nav log.
- Bring the plan to your instructor for review and the endorsement.
- Practice the diversion and lost procedures with your instructor first.
Common mistakes
- Going without the required endorsement for that flight.
- Pushing on into worse weather instead of diverting or turning back.
- Forgetting to close the VFR flight plan, which can start a search.
Questions to ask your instructor
- What limits do you want on my solo cross-countries?
- Which route should I plan for my long 150 NM solo cross-country?
- Who should I call if I divert or get delayed?
Related lessons
Check yourself
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