Dear Rod:

Private pilot certificate candidates are expected to be able to plan and execute a cross- country flight in which they prepare a log sheet and select checkpoints and calculate estimated times of arrival and fuel burn for each. Assuming a low cruising altitude, this is a relatively simple exercise for all checkpoints except the first one. For the first checkpoint, there is a climb segment and a cruise segment. For the remaining segments one can typically assume a constant altitude, , and fuel consumption rate.

Now for my question. As an instructor, I'd like to know if there is a single, preferred technique that students can use to calculate the ETA and fuel burn for the first checkpoint.

One rule-of-thumb method I've seen is to use the planned cruise airspeed and fuel rate for the entire first segment, and then add one minute for each thousand feet of climb, to account for the reduced airspeed and increased fuel burn during the climb. However, it would also be practical to use the performance charts to perform a more detained calculation, and there are flight-planning programs that will actually do so. The question is, what do examiners really want to see?

Sincerely, M. Wilson

Greetings M. Wilson:

Here's my rule of thumb regarding rules of thumb: Use a rule of thumb on anything you desire except fuel burn, otherwise you'll be all thumbs when it comes to calculating the precise amount of fuel in your tanks.

Yes, I know there are several rules of thumb floating around regarding fuel usage and time to climb. The problem is that many of these rules of thumb get a thumbs down for their accuracy. While accuracy may not be an issue when it comes to estimating required descent rates and cloud bases, it nevertheless makes sense to strive for petrol precision with fuel calculations. Here's what I suggest you teach your students.

Have them check the airplane's POH (pilot's operating handbook) for a chart that allows them to compute fuel usage during a climb. Most POHs have such a chart. The Cessna 172, for instance, has a chart titled Time, Fuel and Distance to Climb. This chart allows you to estimate with great precision the time, distance, and fuel required to make a climb to cruise altitude. For example, the chart shows that you'll cover 12 nm in 10 minutes and use 1.9 gallons of fuel as you climb through an altitude difference of 6,000 feet at 60 knots IAS. With this information, as well as any headwind or tailwind component you've calculated, your student can easily estimate his or her arrival time and fuel usage at the first checkpoint.

For instance, suppose that the first checkpoint is 15 miles away. Under a no-wind condition, you only need to compute the time to fly three additional miles at cruise speed to find the ETA at the first checkpoint. If there's a wind involved, so what? These calculations should be child's play for anyone who's passed - or is preparing to take - the private pilot knowledge exam. I can make these calculations in seconds with one hand while using the E6B computer. Typically, however, it often takes two hands and a bit more time when using the standard electronic aviation calculator.

If the Time, Fuel and Distance to Climb chart isn't available for your student's specific airplane, then make one. Do so by determining that particular airplane's average fuel burn rate in a climb and the average rate of climb during climb to cruise altitude. This is how airplane owners come to know their airplane's precise fuel burn. Sure, it will require a few hours of experimentation, but you can do this during the course of training. There's no good reason why you shouldn't create an approximate Time, Fuel and Distance to Climb chart for your student when one isn't available for his or her particular airplane.

What do examiners like to see regarding precision with checkpoint computation? All I can say is that your students can't go wrong if they strive for precision. The above methods of calculation are certainly more precise than the rule of thumb you mentioned.

Consider the following. It's unlikely that your students will create elaborate flight logs for future flights once they are certificated. Nevertheless, your insistence that they use flight logs early in their training will at least force them to think in terms of checkpoints after they become private pilots.

This is also why you should insist on precision when your students compute time and fuel usage during private pilot training. You want to leave them with the impression that precision is important when it comes to knowing the amount of fuel in their tanks. As they strive to become experienced aviators, this type of training will serve them well.

Flying Smart Aviation Speak On a computer bulletin board where student pilots toss out questions, a new student asked why he needed to include in his calculations when planning cross-country flights. "Couldn't I just use groundspeed?" he asked. Respondents were quick to point out that unless he knew his airplane's true airspeed, or TAS, he wouldn't be able to compute his groundspeed.

TAS is the speed at which your airplane is moving through the air. It varies according to altitude, temperature, power setting, and engine performance. For flight-planning purposes, you look in your pilot's operating handbook to find the TAS for the approximate altitude, outside air temperature, and engine rpm you will be flying.

You then use the TAS - along with true course and wind direction and velocity at cruise altitude, which you obtain from the winds-aloft portion of your weather briefing - to calculate a wind-correction angle. The TAS, adjusted for wind correction and true course, yields your estimated groundspeed. This is the speed of your airplane relative to the Earth's surface. It's the speed that you'll use to calculate fuel burn and estimated travel times for each leg of your trip.

There's no cruise control in an airplane - you can't push a button and keep traveling at a steady 110 kt. That's because you're flying in a three-dimensional environment in which winds can and do change direction and velocity. So you'll want to compare changes in groundspeed against your TAS. A tailwind can become a headwind that eats up your fuel reserve by causing your aircraft to fly more slowly across the ground and burn more fuel to travel the same distance. If you keep track of this, you'll know if you need to make a refueling stop sooner than you had anticipated, and you won't become a fuel-starvation statistic.

There are a number of reasons that might explain why pilots overwhelmingly prefer a manual E-6B to its battery-powered, microchip counterpart.

First, the E-6B is a status symbol, and many pilots are proud to be seen with one. This is similar to the manner in which math and engineering students in college used to enjoy strutting around campus with slide rules dangling conspicuously from their belts. (I recall buying a used E-6B after my first flying lesson. No, I had no use for it so early in my career, but the computer looked so cool and identified me as a pilot.) Second, the E-6B is absolutely, positively Y2K compliant and will not fail when a battery dies. (Plastic E-6Bs, however, have been known to warp and become junk when left on the glareshield of a parked airplane on a hot, sunny day.) Third, they are relatively inexpensive. Perhaps the most significant reason for the E-6B’s popularity and longevity is the elegant simplicity with which a pilot can construct a wind triangle. The required plotting consists only of making a small pencil mark on the computer to represent the wind velocity. Once that is done, the pilot needs only to adjust the sliding scale to the applicable true airspeed and rotate the compass rose to the desired true course. Voilà! The computer has been set up in a way that allows the pilot to visualize the entire wind triangle. The two unknown quantities (usually groundspeed and true heading) are then read directly from the computer and can be visually verified as being reasonably correct solutions.

For these reasons, the majority of flight and ground instructors continue to recommend the "old- fashioned" E-6B instead of an electronic model. Although slightly more accurate than an E-6B, electronic computers are prone to input errors that result in erroneous data that may not be as readily detected as when using an E-6B, a classic example of "garbage in, garbage out."

It is worth noting that although some E-6B computers are marketed under different names (such as Jeppesen’s Slide-Graphic Computer), they are nevertheless the products of Philip Dalton’s ingenuity. It is unfortunate that he did not live long enough to appreciate the relative immortality of his creation.

Make Your Planning Count There are as many reasons to learn to fly as there are people who have dreamed of it. Sometimes the motivation is family lore about a brave old relative who was a pilot in aviation's early days. For some, the fascination began with a childhood vacation begun on a giant airliner or a visit to an airshow. Some have loved aviation for so long that they can't remember when the excitement started.

One thing is certain: Few people begin taking flying lessons because they want to master slow flight or ground reference maneuvers. More often, prospective pilots want the freedom that comes from flying to places that are normally out of their reach. That's where the later stages of flight training-cross-country flying-come into play.

As the name implies, a cross-country flight can be anything from an epic journey between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty to a 50-mile hop up the coast for lunch.

Cross-Country Requirements

For the purposes of satisfying FAA requirements to earn a pilot certificate or rating, the term cross- country applies to flights of at least 50 nautical miles from one airport to another. You cannot fly 120 miles, turn around, and return to the same airport you took off from and log that as a cross-country flight if you didn't land somewhere else in between. That en-route landing can't be made at an airport that is within 50 nm straight-line distance of your airport of departure. This is a common mistake, so be careful not to log as cross-country time any flight where your initial landing is within 50 nm of the airport you started at. If you do, you may apply for an advanced rating or certificate (instrument rating, commercial certificate, etc.) only to find that you don't really have the necessary cross-country experience despite the totals in your logbook.

If you fly to and land-a touch and go is considered a landing for logging cross-country flight experience- at an airport 50 nm or more from your departure point, you may then land at any airport that is within 50 nm of your airport of origin and count the entire flight as a cross-country. For example, if you take off and land at an airport 54 miles away, then depart and perform a touch and go at an airport that is 17 miles from home (and 37 miles from the airport you just left), the whole trip is loggable as cross-country experience. It's the first landing that really counts.

Now that we know what a cross-country flight is, we can take a look at the techniques, skills, and equipment used in the planning and flying. Cross-Country Planning Tools

With the advent of new technology and its value in enhancing aviation safety, it is only a matter if time before all the magic whistles and bells used in large aircraft find their way into general aviation. Today, most pilots can take advantage of moving maps, electronic flight computers, loran, RNAV, and GPS technology to help them plan and navigate their cross-country flights.

At home, pilots can choose from various flight planning software that requires little more than the names or identifiers of the airports of intended landing in order to plan a route of flight.

Now, I am a believer in technology and know that aviation is ultimately safer because of scientific advances. However, putting blind faith into electronic navigation and flight planning devices and software-particularly if you do so because you do not have a firm understanding of the basic concepts and skills of navigation-is a very good way to find yourself confused, unsafe, and irredeemably lost. I am not advocating navigating solely by reference to celestial constellations-although that is still a valuable and attainable skill for any pilot. Still, you should have a firm knowledge of pilotage (navigation by landmarks), dead reckoning (navigation by plotting a course on a chart), and electronic means (navigation by radio and satellite technology). Except for flight in pure instrument meteorological conditions, almost all cross-country flights are flown and navigated using these three methods in concert.

Planning The Flight

Once you have decided which airports you would like to include in your cross-country planning, begin by calling a flight service station (FSS) at 800/ WX-BRIEF to obtain a standard weather briefing for that route of flight. Direct User Access Terminal Service (DUATS) also allows you to get a complete briefing using your computer. But it's still a good idea to speak to an FSS briefer who can clarify and explain what the weather data means. Remember to get the winds aloft, which are reported starting at 3,000 feet msl and going up in 3,000-foot increments. You will need to interpolate between the reported values to determine the wind at your planned altitude. Also, keep in mind that winds aloft are reported in true, not magnetic, directions. The closer to the actual time of the flight you get your briefing the better, as weather and other variables can change quickly.

Next, choose the most direct course possible. A straight line is still the shortest distance between two points-we won't go into great circles for now-and if terrain and airspace are free of obstacles, simply use a plotter (or any straight edge) to draw a bold line between your takeoff point and your destination. If there is an area of prohibited airspace, a 10,000-foot mountain, a raging forest fire, a Blue Angels airshow, a towering thunder cell, a busy Class B airport, or any other type of hindrance that would make this direct route unwise, simply use an intermediate landmark to dogleg around the problem, and continue with your planning. Consulting sectional and terminal charts will answer your questions about terrain and airspace, and that call to the flight service station can answer your questions about fires, airshows, and other temporary considerations. (Notices to airmen, or notams, are part of a standard weather briefing.)

Once you have drawn your true course line and noted it under TC in your flight planning log, convert it to magnetic course by adding or subtracting the magnetic variation (VAR in the flight planning log) along your route of flight on the chart by using the dashed purple isogonic lines. (Magnetic variation is the angular difference between true and magnetic north, by the way.) Subtract from your true course for eastern variation and add for western variation to obtain your magnetic course. (A good way to remember this is with the saying, "East is least and West is best.") Be sure to note this number in the MC (magnetic course) column of your flight planning log. Magnetic course is one of the most important concepts in aviation. Your navigation, hemispheric rule altitude, VOR orientation, runway headings, and traffic warnings from air traffic control are all based on your course- the path you are flying over the ground-not your heading, or the direction in which the nose of the aircraft is pointed. Further, you must use magnetic course, which accounts for local variations, rather than true course, which does not.

Now, choose an en-route altitude based on the hemispheric rule. For VFR flights that means that any time you fly at 3,000 feet above ground level (agl) or higher, you must choose an odd altitude plus 500 feet (3,500 feet, 5,500 feet, etc.) if your magnetic course is from 0 degrees through 179 degrees. Choose an even altitude plus 500 feet (4,500 feet, 6,500 feet, etc.) if your magnetic course is 180 degrees through 359 degrees. To help you remember this, use the phrase "East is odd."

Although it is possible to fly a cross-country below 3,000 feet agl and legally avoid worrying about the hemispheric rule, it is still a good idea to adhere to the scheme. When wind, weather, airspace, and other conditions make it practical, it's a good idea to fly at a higher altitude because it will improve the useful range of your communication and navigation radios, allow your engine to run leaner and use less fuel, improve radar coverage, give yourself more time to troubleshoot and pick a safe forced landing site in case of an engine failure, and have a better view of terrain and landmarks below. Keeping this in mind, note your planned cruising altitude in the ALT (altitude) column of your flight log.

Next go to your aircraft's pilot's operating handbook (POH) and, from the cruise performance charts, choose a true airspeed (TAS) by interpolating by altitude and rpm. (Your fuel burn in cruise also is available here, so note that figure under GPH, or gallons per hour, in your flight log.) Because sectional charts use nautical miles rather than statute miles like other maps, you must make sure your aircraft speeds are in knots. If they are in miles per hour, use the knots to miles per hour conversion table on your flight computer. If you don't, all of your speed and distance calculations will be about 15 percent off.

Now use the flight computer to obtain the wind correction angle, which will, in turn, give you your magnetic heading (MH) and your ground speed (GS). Again, heading is the direction in which the nose of the aircraft is pointed, and course is the path you take over the ground. In a no-wind situation, which is very rare, both heading and course are the same. Since the wind is so influential in the way an aircraft flies, we always need to know our wind correction angle or we will be off-course and/or moving much more slowly (or faster) than we believe we are. Interestingly, if we are on the agonic line (a single line that links points on the earth with no magnetic variation) and there is no wind, true course, magnetic course, true heading, and magnetic heading are all the same. Once you have your wind correction angle, ground speed, and magnetic heading, note them in the flight log.

At this point, go back to your chart and divide your flight into checkpoints roughly 20 miles apart. (In the CP column you can note the actual time over the checkpoint to get updates on ground speed en route.) These checkpoints will help you to keep on course and confirm your location. It is important to choose prominent landmarks that can be easily identified from the air. Small lakes, hills, powerlines, and water towers may be difficult to find and positively identify from several thousand feet. Try to choose landmarks on the left side and not too far laterally from your course.

Note the landmarks you select by name (Bay Bridge, Spring Lake, etc...) along the left vertical column of your flight log. Add up the distances between landmarks and that will give you the total distance of the flight. In the column marked DIS, note the total distance of the flight on the left side of the diagonal line and on the right side write the distance between your departure point and your first checkpoint. Next, subtract the distance to the first checkpoint from the total distance and write that number in the left-hand side of the second checkpoint column. On the right side, write the distance between the first checkpoint and the second, and so on. At the last column, where the destination airport is written, the number should be zero.

With most of the planning done, it's time to go back to the POH performance charts and get the last details involving rate of climb, time to climb, and total fuel needed. The information from the POH will help you decide when to make fuel stops and give you your estimated time en route (ETE). Make sure you give yourself a "fuel cushion," not only to satisfy the regulations but also to keep yourself safe. (The federal aviation regulations re-quire that you arrive at your destination with 30 minutes of fuel for daytime VFR flights and 45 minutes of fuel for nighttime VFR flights. This is a bare minimum.)

Plan to have at least a one-hour fuel reserve when you reach your destination. Round up on your fuel burn estimates and take advantage of fueling opportunities along the way. An easy trick to employ with most light aircraft is to make your fuel burn 10 gph, even if it is only seven or eight gph. That way, the math is easier and, more importantly, you will have a little extra fuel in case your estimates are slightly off or an unforecast headwind comes your way.

Among your last planning obligations is to obtain all the needed information and frequencies for the airports you will visit as well as several more along the way, in case you need to make an unscheduled landing because a plane landed gear-up at your destination. The flight log I use has vertical columns along the bottom that allow you to enter information about several airports and VORs as well as draw the runway and pattern configurations. It's a good idea to draw the runway layout with an arrow showing the direction from which you will be approaching the airport. In addition, there is space to log your times and remarks, such as "begin descent," "get ATIS," "open flight plan," etc....And, as always, a weight-and-balance computation is a must.

Finally, make sure to file, open, and close a flight plan with FSS and use radar flight following. Cross- country flying is the practical side to the adventure of flying to new and exciting destinations. Plan carefully and keep track of your progress so you can enjoy the view along the way.

Cross-Country Flight Planning

1. Get a standard weather briefing. (800/WX-BRIEF on the ground, 122.2 MHz in the air.) 2. Draw a line on the chart from departure point to destination. 3. Use the plotter to find true course (TC). 4. Find magnetic variation (VAR) on the chart. 5. Figure magnetic course (MC). (MC = TC +/- VAR) 6. Choose cruising altitude based on the hemispheric rule. (MC 180? through 359? = even thousands + 500 feet; MC 360? through 179? = odd thousands + 500 feet) 7. Interpolate true airspeed (TAS) from the POH using altitude and rpm. Note fuel burn in gph. 8. If your airplane uses miles per hour, convert to knots. 9. Figure your wind correction angle (WCA), magnetic heading (MH), and ground speed (GS) on your flight computer. (MH = MC +/- WCA). Note these in your flight log. 10. Choose checkpoints and determine total distance and leg distances. Note them in the flight log. 11. Use performance charts to determine time, distance, and fuel to climb. (Read all chart notes regarding temperature and elevation before working problems.) 12. Use a flight computer and performance charts to determine ground speed and duration of cruise portion of flight. 13. Calculate estimated time en route (ETE). (ETE = time of climb + time of cruise.) Note in flight log. 14. Figure fuel consumption using performance charts and flight computer. Allow fuel for start up, taxi, runup, and climb. 15. Get information on airports of intended landing, along with alternates, and those en route. Include runway lengths and layouts, traffic pattern altitudes, pattern directions, and pattern entries. 16. File a flight plan with FSS. (Be sure to open it before you take off and close it when you land.)

Checkride Cross-Country Testing Life would be simpler if pilots never flew out of sight of their home airports. However, other destinations beckon and have since aviation's earliest years, bringing into being a variety of cross-country flight planning philosophies. The FAA has written certain of these, planting them into the practical test standards (PTS) to which you now train. When you take your private pilot flight test, expect cross- country flight planning to be a considerable portion of your oral testing. It will call broadly on your studied knowledge. You can prepare by considering a few important points.

The Private Pilot Practical Test Standard's Area of Operation I, task C, directs examiners to test applicants' cross-country flight planning, and at first glance it seems to be simplic ity personified. Plotting a course for the intended route of flight and using appropriate current aeronautical charts should be as basic as anyone could ask.

Should be. Sometimes applicants ignore the basics. Several years ago, astounding circumstance and poor planning overwhelmed a pilot applicant when the local VOR station was assigned a new frequency the same month that the government issued the latest local VFR sectional chart. (The new chart showed the new frequency, and notices to airmen [notams] had warned pilots about the impending change for about two weeks.) During oral testing before his flight, he answered all questions correctly, but the chart's battered, line-crossed face betrayed its obsolescence, so his examiner did not ask about the chart's expiration. Aloft, the applicant could not verify the first checkpoint, which was but a thinly penciled VOR radial unsupported by any surface landmark. The obsolete frequency, which he repeatedly sought from the obsolete chart, only resulted in a rumbling, red-flagged hum from the VOR navigation radio. This so unnerved the commercial (yes - commercial!) pilot applicant that in minutes he was lost within sight of his home field.

Although this example was extreme, its root in shoddy preparation supports the FAA's recurring cry that poor preflight planning remains the leading cause of aircraft incidents and accidents. It also reveals a creeping trend in flight training away from new pilots' understanding of a most fundamental flying skill: pilotage. Pilotage is simply navigating by reference to landmarks or checkpoints. Our growing reliance on VOR radio navigation in the early 1960s, then loran in the 1980s, and now on the global positioning system, has eroded the joyful tradition of looking out the window and proclaiming with authority, "That's White Pigeon!" Costly cross-country training flights rarely ignore navaids. Ground-based training devices cannot successfully imitate pilotage-based navigation scenarios. So, for too many students, pilotage becomes an exercise in academic study, with discussions between flight instructor and flight student the rarity. That leaves the checkride. Your pilot examiner's questions in this area reinforce flying safety and bolster your confidence in your ability to plan an uneventful cross-country flight.

Despite course lines, checkpoints, and the varied airspaces that your planned flight traverses, the destination, as Shakespeare would say, "is the thing." Examiners display an almost perverse interest in what information applicants gather concerning their destinations, how it was obtained - and particularly on applicants' interpretation of that material. Your examiner's questions may avoid mentioning it by name, but they will lead you to the Airport/Facility Directory, most often called the A/FD. Examiners' curiosity centers on their applicants' determination of airport elevation; runway and lighting facilities; available services, including fuel; communications frequencies, if any; traffic pattern altitude; and other pertinent information, including notams. Since A/FDs appear every 56 days and notams even more frequently, these government publications are deliriously popular with the pilot examiner family. These government publications should be just as popular with pilots.

Commercially produced products imitate the A/FD, in some regards surpassing the government booklet. Airport diagrams for smaller airports, for example, once were platinum-rare or were completely ignored in the A/FD. That is changing, as each A/FD seems to thicken with every printing. On the other hand, few if any commercially printed directories are as frequently updated as the A/FD, and the growing presence of small-airport diagrams in the A/FD makes it much more attractive. Incidentally, where at one time pilots would welcome even a fingernail-size airport diagram, as the twenty-first century dawns, its ubiquitous Internet has Web sites from which pilots can print full-page airport diagrams for almost any airport that one can imagine. Your examiner would almost perform handstands to see you arrive with these added to your flight planning.

Pilot examiners also enjoy seeing applicants display their awareness of the listings of sectional chart changes that are found in the back of each A/FD. Compared to most commercially produced airport guides, these aeronautical chart bulletins become a value-added resource beyond measure. When an examiner asks how often a nongovernment resource is updated, unless one can truthfully reply "every 56 days," the applicant can expect tough questioning to follow. Why? First, the PTS in its tenth element of this task mandates that applicants "extract and record pertinent information from notams, the Airport/Facility Directory, and other flight publications." Some students, pilots, and even ground instructors have argued that the word "other" allows equivalent commercial publications to replace the A/FD. Look again. The PTS does not say "or" after naming the A/FD. It says "and."

Legalities aside, there is a second, more human reason why examiners gravitate to the A/FD. Because a given sectional chart may be up to six months old, this listing of changes becomes critical. As discussed above, sometimes even crisp, newly issued sectional charts can present obsolete information. You should know that airports close, navaids move, their frequencies change, and new obstructions are as prolific as migratory waterfowl in the springtime. The aeronautical chart bulletins in the back of A/FDs provide this information to you, and the information can be vital. Some examples from a recent A/FD include: "Change obst. 1,067 feet MSL (593 feet AGL) to 1,160 feet MSL (698 feet AGL), 38°37'39"N, 90°11'21"W." If your examiner happened to know that the tower was more than 100 feet higher than listed on the chart, but you did not, it might trigger some additional testing.

Just because your examiner assigns an airport for your cross-country destination does not mean that it exists. Another aeronautical chart bulletin advised pilots to, "Delete Conlen Airport 36°14'30"N, 102°14'31"W." It is too common to see airports die in these brief A/FD notices, while their ghosts haunt the sectional charts. Examiners sniff bloodhound-like about the applicants' information trail in cross- country flight planning; weather and notams first, then the A/FD; those will be the sources that your examiner wants you to know. You don't know what you don't know, and the A/FD helps you to know. Anecdotally, one broad expanse occasionally appears in the A/FD, and both flight and ground instructors overlook it. Some pages are marked "intentionally left blank." If your examiner wants to lighten the mood of oral testing as you thumb through it, he could chuckle while asking why this phrase appears in the A/FD. It is not to trick you: Your examin er may have simply forgotten that what is basic to him may not be basic to you. "Intentionally left blank" reassures the reader that nothing has been omitted on a blank page.

In those expanses between their sparse airport information, sectional charts present seemingly countless potential checkpoints. Many of these seem useful until a pilot considers them carefully. Because this is true, the PTS insists that examiners be able to report that their applicants have selected "easily identifiable en route checkpoints." The caveat that your checkpoints be "easily identifiable" has raised the occasional question or dispute. One might more easily define "fun," but the issue is one of validity rather than semantics. My introduction to sectionals was during the now-ancient days when certain cattle trails appeared on Nebraska charts. Adrift over sandhills in a Champ or a Cub, bereft of radios, navaids, highways, lakes, or towns, a cow path could be easily identifiable. Move the clock forward about 40 years, double the airspeed, triple the altitude, consider the cockpit workload, and one can understand why today's pilots can't identify even small towns. The airplane, your workload, the day's visibility, and other conditions will weigh heavy on what you should call an easily identifiable checkpoint. Your examiner wants to see you display good judgment above wishful thinking at this point. The PTS lists 11 objectives regarding oral testing on cross-country flight planning, and most pilots are reasonably prepared by checkride day. Surprises are bound to occur, but ideally they do so during the planning phase, rather than in the sky. Your examiner will be detail-oriented, but that is because aviation is. You need not be perfect, just thorough and accurate enough to avoid getting yourself or a passenger frightened or hurt. Having such a reputation within the aviation community becomes the best proof of your good judgment and aeronautical decision-making.