What's it take to get a student pilot license these days?

Salty

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
13,269
Location
FL
Display Name

Display name:
Salty
Asking for a friend.
 
An instructor to sign the IACRA application.
 
Fill out an 8710 form on Iacra, have an instructor verify your identification and submit it to the FAA. In most case you will have a temporary certificate with a week.
 
You must read, speak, and understand English. Not much else.
 
Above all correct unless the potential student is not a U.S. Citizen. Add more steps if so.
 
Above all correct unless the potential student is not a U.S. Citizen. Add more steps if so.
I thought proof was required to be shown to instructor. No?
 
I thought proof was required to be shown to instructor. No?

If a US citizen, then proof of citizenship must be presented to the instructor.
(passport, birth cert)
 
I thought proof was required to be shown to instructor. No?

Yes. And if they’re not we send them off to a lovely TSA website.

Of course I’m no expert on forged documents so what TSA thinks is intelligent about having me work as their part-time unpaid employee accomplishes, I have no idea.
 
My understanding was the "proof of citizenship" for US citizens was required "before flight training begins", is recorded in logbooks, and is not related to the IACRA student-license process. IACRA can come later, or earlier, than the start of training. There, the CFI is just verifying identity and English proficiency. Am I wrong about this?
 
Yes. And if they’re not we send them off to a lovely TSA website.

Of course I’m no expert on forged documents so what TSA thinks is intelligent about having me work as their part-time unpaid employee accomplishes, I have no idea.
As a hiring manager at multiple large companies, I have always been amazed that with literally zero training I am supposed to validate these types of credentials.
 
if you already have a endorsement about US Citizenship in your log book, that works too. i think that needs to be less than 5 years old or something
 
My understanding was the "proof of citizenship" for US citizens was required "before flight training begins", is recorded in logbooks, and is not related to the IACRA student-license process. IACRA can come later, or earlier, than the start of training. There, the CFI is just verifying identity and English proficiency. Am I wrong about this?

Maybe I'm not the best person to answer, but that's the way mine was done. On my first lesson, I brought my proof of identity stuff and my CFI put it in my logbook. For IACRA, I think we just filled it in and signed it, though I may have needed my driver's license (gov. id) number? I'm not sure anymore. That was way back in March. ;)

And no, you don't need a medical to have a student pilot license. I didn't get mine until a couple days later due to scheduling stuff.
 
The university where I teach has an aviation dept with Frasca sims. I still had to bring my passport to prove US citizenship in order to use the sims, even tho I had already brought it to the HR dept in order to be employed by the university. Sometimes, logic baffles me.
 
The university where I teach has an aviation dept with Frasca sims. I still had to bring my passport to prove US citizenship in order to use the sims, even tho I had already brought it to the HR dept in order to be employed by the university. Sometimes, logic baffles me.

When I got my MIchigan CPL it required a federal background check, and proof us US citizenship for me to get it. On the CPL, in addition to my CPL number, is my MI Drivers License number. It also uses the same picture as my driver's license. Do you think that info could be used to get my drivers license real ID? I'll give you one guess...
 
I can't believe how many copies of my fingerprints HSA must have for me:

1. DC-3 pilot certification (actually did that with fingerprint cards).
2. TSA Precheck (electronic)
3. TWIC (electronic)
4. Global Entry (electronic)

The person said "Kid, we don't like your kind. We're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
And friends somewhere in Washington, enshrined in some database, is a study in ones and zeros of my fingerprints.

This doesn't even count the gazillion times the DOD has taken my prints for ID cards and security clearances over the years.
 
When did that change?
The FAA has always issued pilot CERTIFICATES. The CAA did so before that.
The FAI before that. Some of the earliest FAI documents did say license.
 
I can't believe how many copies of my fingerprints HSA must have for me:

1. DC-3 pilot certification (actually did that with fingerprint cards).
2. TSA Precheck (electronic)
3. TWIC (electronic)
4. Global Entry (electronic)

The person said "Kid, we don't like your kind. We're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
And friends somewhere in Washington, enshrined in some database, is a study in ones and zeros of my fingerprints.

This doesn't even count the gazillion times the DOD has taken my prints for ID cards and security clearances over the years.

I hear you. Every airport I get badged requires prints and a run through the FBI system. Down to only 2 at the moment, but need to get another 2 soon. You'd think they would create another program to allow a single fingerprinting clearinghouse number.
 
The amusing thing is that with the exception of GE including Precheck, none of the above seems to interoperate. For a while I was using my TWIC card at the airport security lines. Amusingly, the further away from a seaport I got, the more likely it was accepted without batting an eye. A TDC in Roswell NM commented that he doesn't see too many of them. I had one at DCA flatout tell me that I was wrong about TWIC being a valid ID. I submitted an inquiry on the TSA website not expecting much. But I got a letter back from their head office saying that the TWIC card is acceptable but the TDC always has the option of asking for a second ID. Then I got a call from the station chief at DCA telling me that they should have accepted it and the screener has been "educated" about them now. That was surprising.

Oddly, the HSA has a lot of efficiency with some really bad bureaucratic hold outs. I went in for my GE interview and they decided they needed one more document from me. The woman there said I could email it to her. I was skeptical, but I sent it in the next day and within minutes I got notification that my GE was approved.
 
First you go to ground school and learn the FAA issues pilot certificates not licenses.

From Wikipedia: Legally, pilot certificates can be revoked by administrative action, whereas licensing (e.g., a driver's license) requires intervention by the judiciary system.
 
From Wikipedia: Legally, pilot certificates can be revoked by administrative action, whereas licensing (e.g., a driver's license) requires intervention by the judiciary system.
Well, Wikipedia is wrong. Driver's license revocation in 41 states and the District of Columbia can be done with administrative action without judicial involvement. That is not the legal distinction (what little there is) between licenses and certificates.
 
Even the FAA calls a pilot certificate a license all over their website. Definitely worth 20-30 posts though.
 
My pilot certificate has a block titled "Certificate Number" on it.
 
Back
Top