I am working on my IFR part 61 and must have 50 hours of X-country as PIC.
Lets say my instructor and I fly to an airport that is 55 miles from my take off airport - it takes us 0.8 hours from take off to land.
Then, on our way back, we do pattern work at another airport - 0.4 hours to fly and 0.7 hours for pattern work.
Then, final leg of flying - 0.3 hours.
Total flight time - 0.8 + 0.4 + 0.7 + 0.3 = 2.2 hours
What is the best and legal way to log this 1.5 hours of X-country, in my log book? If I could, I would like to take advantage of the 0.3 + 0.4 hours during my return flight as X-country time.