Bob wrote in message . ..
1) I keep my plane in a hangar at an airport more than 50
nm from the airport nearest my home. I decide to fly it
home for a week (1 hr), and tie it down. I fly locally for
that week (5 hrs), then back to my hangar airport (1 hr).
How much of that can I log as XC time usable for a rating?

2) I decide to take a long multi-day trip. Most days I fly
far more than 50 nm (25 hrs). Some days I fly "locally" to
see the sights and return to the same airport (10 hrs) that
is more than 50 nm from home. Some days I make only a
little progress and land less than 50 nm from the airport of
the previous day, but much farther than 50 nm from my hangar
airport (5hrs). How much of that can I log as XC time
usable for a rating?


What is the rating you are after? The FAR's spell it out pretty
clearly. If you land at an airport or other place then where you take
off from, it is clearly a cross country flight. Yeah yeah I know.....
there are those who will argue the point but they can only see as far
as what is described in the FAR's and that only applies to those
flights needed to meet a particular requirement for a rating and that
is for Private or Commercial pilot, or the IFR XC. For the rest of it,
a 5 mile flight is XC. Outside of the specific regulation, its all
semantics.