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By Paul_Sengupta
Gertie wrote:The bit I remember was being chatted to as an equal by the captain of the airliner parked next to me on the ramp at one of the destinations. :D

I was invited by the crew to have a look round a C130 on mine! (in the US...Ocala)
By Dominie
flybymike wrote:My recollection from the early eighties was 150 nm and two land aways for a UK PPL

At least that’s what I had to do anyway.

I did mine in 1996 and think there was a requirement for two landings with one leg >70nm, IIRC. I did Bourn-Nottingham-Sywell-Bourn which was rather good as I had my first ever flight at Sywell 30 years before.
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By kanga
Gertie wrote:..

ISTR it was on my QXC (many decades ago) that it was when paying the landing fee at one of my destinations I was first addressed as 'Captain' :)
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By townleyc
@Dominie - that is interesting. I did my QXC from Bourn in 2008.

Then they did Bourn - Wellesbourne - Leicester - Bourn for the NPPL, and Bourn - Wellesbourne - Nottingham - Bourn for the PPL

Most enjoyable trip, although a few clenching moments looking for Nottingham :shock:

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By James Chan
I can't say if the QXC is too short, unless pilots are either not safe or not confident about being able go places and fly across borders after they've obtained their license.

I presume these numbers would have been discussed and debated at length in professional circles, and mostly thought of as being okay.

And an examiner is not going sign someone off unless they can show they are up to standards.
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By Irv Lee
kanga wrote:Many decades ago, long pre-Easa, I believe that France allowed UK SPLs learning in Jersey or Guernsey to fly solo to Cherbourg or Dinard for their qxc

I did Jersey, Dinan, Rennes, back to Jersey via Granville to make it long enough. Due to French rules, I needed what was effectively a UK student licence even though they didn't/don't exist. I cannot remember what form it took, maybe just a CAA letter to take with me along with everything else, but not having it delayed my first non-land-away solo x/c.
By Lefty
I think the distance needs to be proportionate to the cruise speed of the a/c. It needs to be long enough for the student to have time to route via a minimum number of waypoints and have a chance to drift off track, identify, and then correct the error to arrive at his destination, within a planned time window.

My solo x/c was a 300nm round trip - from Goose Bay to Churchill Falls and return. 150nm each way. There simply wasn’t a licensed airport any closer - and being in the middle of the Canadian Tundra, there were (almost) no visual identification points. Just thousands of lakes and trees, with an occasional river.
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