Solo Cross Country Endorsments?

Question

I'm a new instructor and I have a question about solo cross country training/endorsments.
ok heres the Deal
My student has done 3 XC trips with me
I signed him off for a Initial XC trip to an airport 60 nm from airport of departure after I had reviewed his flight planning. I had my old instructor review it to be sure i'm not messing up on anything. He says that its not valid because I had not flown the route with him and given instruction on the route to and from the airport and pattern entry. My question is the endorsement for this type of XC says That I have to review and approve his cross country flight plan. Now if I were signing him off for repeted XC that one says Specificly that I have to give Instruction on route of flight 2 and from and pattern entry. Am I right or is my old instrucor correct

Answer 1

You are correct. You only need to fly the route with him to sign him off for repeated cross country flights on the same route (I did this for a student who had his own plane at his own airstrip and would fly to where I was based for lessons). It makes it easier and less worrisome for the student if his first cross-country is a route he has flown previously with you, but there is no requirement for it.
The inital cross-country sign-off simply states you have given him the required cross-country training and has to be given by the instructor who gave the training.
The sign-off for each individual cross-country can be given by any instructor and states that you have checked his planning and found it to be correct for that specific flight.
Don't forget he needs to have BOTH the initial sign off from you (including his license endorsed) and a sign-off for the specific flight from whichever instructor reviewed his planning.

Answer 2

As far as I remember, the endorsement that requires you to fly & review the route with the student is the one for repeated flights to an airport between 25 & 50nm away. I did 4XCs, all without having previously flown the route with my instructor.

The only time we flew the route was when we flew to the airport where I was eventually going to take my practical. Since it was about 35nm away, my instructor gave me the endorsement that would allow me to fly there multiple times without specific flight planning for each one.

Edit: Just checked my log book, and I did fly the route of my first short XC with my instructor. I'd forgotten all about doing so (it's been 11 years). Anyway, after that, I did 2 more short XCs and a very long one without having preflown the route, just reviewed the flight planning in detail.

Answer 3

I think you have a semantics argument here. If this is being considered for the student's short XC, I think you need to have flown that with your student. If this is the student's long XC (over 100nm with at least 2 landings), I think you review and sign. Please note that I am not an instructor, but do hold a ASEL private license.

Answer 4

Without digging into the FARs, my memories agree with tp hough.