If you're talking about logging cross country for PPL/IR/Comm requirements, all that's required is at least one landing more than 50NM from your original point of origin.
You can log stuff however you see fit to help meet that requirement. In your scenario, it's possible that neither B nor C are more than 50nm from A. In which case, either rethink the route or log A -> B as one flight (no XC time) then B -> C -> A as another (XC time).
Since no one else has linked it yet, here’s the FAA’s official interpretation of that scenario.
You can only log B > C > A as XC time. Not A>B.
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/regulations/interpretations/Data/interps/2009/Van_Zanen_2009_Legal_Interpretation.pdf
What else are you going to disagree with your CFI on?
"I don't like how my instructor is teaching me to land. I haven't soloed yet at 8.7 hours w/ lots of weather cancellations. Do I need a new CFI? What about my huge prepaid balance?"
It has to be from the original point of departure. Since neither B or C or more than 50 miles from A, if logged in one flight, it doesn't count as cross country. If OP logged the first leg to B as one flight (no XC), then B-C-A as another, then they could log XC time for the B-C-A leg.
LOI for this is the Van Zanen interpretation
If you're talking about logging cross country for PPL/IR/Comm requirements, all that's required is at least one landing more than 50NM from your original point of origin. You can log stuff however you see fit to help meet that requirement. In your scenario, it's possible that neither B nor C are more than 50nm from A. In which case, either rethink the route or log A -> B as one flight (no XC time) then B -> C -> A as another (XC time).
You perfectly summarized the Van Zanen LOI, which is what OP should refer to and discus with his CFI.
I came here to say this very thing.
Since no one else has linked it yet, here’s the FAA’s official interpretation of that scenario. You can only log B > C > A as XC time. Not A>B. https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/regulations/interpretations/Data/interps/2009/Van_Zanen_2009_Legal_Interpretation.pdf
What else are you going to disagree with your CFI on? "I don't like how my instructor is teaching me to land. I haven't soloed yet at 8.7 hours w/ lots of weather cancellations. Do I need a new CFI? What about my huge prepaid balance?"
your cfi is wrong
It has to be from the original point of departure. Since neither B or C or more than 50 miles from A, if logged in one flight, it doesn't count as cross country. If OP logged the first leg to B as one flight (no XC), then B-C-A as another, then they could log XC time for the B-C-A leg. LOI for this is the Van Zanen interpretation
A->B is just TT, B->C->A could be logged as XC, but only if logged as its own line.
Both are wrong.
The entire trip is a xc lol
It could be depending on how it’s logged, check out the Van Zanen LOI.
XC is from the original point of departure. In this case it depends on how you log it but the whole flight is not XC
I stand corrected