In the US, a student pilot certificate is issued to a pilot in training, and is a pre-requisite for the student to fly alone in the aircraft, or solo. It is usually initially issued by a medical doctor who is also an authorized aviation medical examiner, in conjunction with the student's first medical certificate. The doctor will issue a combination medical and student pilot certificate if the applicant meets the medical standards, and the flight instructor will later endorse the certificate when the student meets various training endorsement requirements (including the requirements for solo flight).
Obtaining a student pilot certificate authorizing solo flight requires 4 steps:
- be 16 years of age or older (14 years for gliders and balloons)
- pass a flight physical administered by an aviation medical examiner (for powered aircraft only, excluding gliders and balloons)
- receive ground and flight instruction
- earn an endorsement from a certificated flight instructor
Read more about Student Pilot Certificate: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words student, pilot and/or certificate:
“One must be a student before one can be a teacher.”
—Chinese proverb.
“In the true mythology, Love is an immortal child, and Beauty leads him as a guide: nor can we express a deeper sense than when we say, Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“God gave the righteous man a certificate entitling him to food and raiment, but the unrighteous man found a facsimile of the same in God’s coffers, and appropriated it, and obtained food and raiment like the former. It is one of the most extensive systems of counterfeiting that the world has seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)