  In this article we obtain a simple topological and dynamical systems
condition which is necessary and sufficient for an arbitrary pseudo-Anosov flow
in a closed, hyperbolic three manifold to be quasigeodesic. Quasigeodesic means
that orbits are efficient in measuring length up to a bounded multiplicative
distortion when lifted to the universal cover. We prove that such flows are
quasigeodesic if and only if there is an upper bound, depending only on the
flow, to the number of orbits which are freely homotopic to an arbitrary closed
orbit of the flow. The main ingredient is a proof that under the boundedness
condition, the fundamental group of the manifold acts as a uniform convergence
group on a flow ideal boundary of the universal cover. We also construct a flow
ideal compactification of the universal cover and prove it is equivariantly
homeomorphic to the Gromov compatification. This implies the quasigeodesic
behavior of the flow. The flow ideal boundary and flow ideal compactification
are constructed using only the structure of the flow.
