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Where does cross-country begin?
Mostly nowhere. The FAA’s 50-mile threshold is the famous one — and the outlier. Most authorities define cross-country by navigation, not distance.
Pilots raised on the FAA assume “cross-country” means a distance. In most of the world it does not: the EASA family defines it as a pre-planned route using standard navigation, with no mileage in the definition at all. The distances people remember — 150 NM, 300 NM — belong to licence-experience requirements, not to the logbook.
| Authority | Cross-country for the logbook | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAA | Landing at a point other than departure, using navigation. Credit thresholds vary by certificate: over 50 NM for most, 25 NM sport/rec/rotorcraft, 15 NM powered parachute, 50 NM without landing for the ATP | 14 CFR § 61.1(b)(3) | Verified |
| EASA | A pre-planned route using standard navigation — no distance in the definition; the familiar 150/300 NM figures live in training-experience rules, not the logbook | FCL.010 | Verified |
| UK CAA | As EASA: pre-planned route, standard navigation, no distance | FCL.010 (retained) | Verified |
| QCAA | As EASA: departure to arrival on a pre-planned route, no distance | QCAR-FCL | Verified |
| GCAA | Different aerodrome, using navigation — no distance threshold | CAR-FCL | Verified |
| TCCA | No fixed radius in the logging definition; distances are per-licence in Standard 421 | Standard 421 | Verified |
| CASA | Navigation-based, no minimum distance in the definition | CASR reg 61.010 | Verified |
| CAAS | Not established as a logging distance — the 25 NM figure in circulation is a CPL privilege radius, not the cross-country definition | — | Verifying |
| NZCAA | Not confirmed as a logging distance — a 25 NM figure in circulation is a student-flight limit; the definition lives in CAR Part 1, still being sourced | — | Verifying |
| HKCAD | Not stated as a distance in the sourced material; working reading is navigation-based | — | Verifying |
| DGCA | A 300 NM figure appears in licensing-experience context; not established as a per-flight logging threshold | — | Verifying |
| GACA | Not confirmed — the threshold has not been retrieved | — | Verifying |
| CAAC | Landing at a point other than departure with navigation, no distance minimum in the base definition — not confirmed against CCAR-61 | — | Verifying |
| JCAB | No numeric threshold confirmed | — | Verifying |
Sojourn stores the landing points and the computed maximum distance from departure, and lets each authority’s export apply — or not apply — its threshold. No “50 NM” is hard-coded anywhere. See the verification state of all fourteen →
Questions
Asked and answered
Does a 45 NM flight count as cross-country?
Under the FAA, generally not for certificate credit (the common threshold is over 50 NM, though sport, rotorcraft and powered-parachute variants differ). Under EASA, the question is malformed: if it followed a pre-planned route using standard navigation, it is cross-country — there is no distance to fail.
Why do people cite 25 NM for Singapore and New Zealand?
Because a 25 NM figure genuinely appears in both regulators' materials — but as a CPL privilege radius in Singapore and a student-flight limit in New Zealand, not as the cross-country definition. Repeating it as a logging threshold is exactly the kind of error that comes from copying figures without the clause they belong to.
Measured from where?
It differs. The FAA measures to the point of landing; New Zealand's circulating figure is measured from the departure aerodrome. When the measurement baseline differs, the same route can pass one test and fail the other — one more reason the record stores the route, not a yes/no flag.