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Student Pilot Certificate: How to Apply Through IACRA

You need a student pilot certificate before you fly solo, but not before you start taking flying lessons. Applying is mostly paperwork your instructor can help with, and the card arrives by mail in about three weeks, so start early enough that it's waiting for you when you're ready to solo.

Who's eligible

To get a student pilot certificate for airplanes, you need to be at least 16 years old and able to read, speak, write and understand English (14 CFR 61.83). For gliders and balloons the minimum age is 14.

You can take lessons before you turn 16. The dual instruction you log still counts toward your pilot certificate later.

How to apply

1. Create an account in IACRA, the FAA's online application system, and fill in the student pilot application. A paper form, FAA Form 8710-1, also works, but IACRA is faster.
2. Meet with an authorized person who processes the application: a flight instructor, a designated pilot examiner, an airman certification representative at a Part 141 school, or the local Flight Standards District Office. They check your identification and submit the application to the FAA.
3. The FAA's Airman Certification Branch reviews it and mails the plastic certificate to the address on your application, in about three weeks.

There's no charge when you apply directly through a Flight Standards District Office. An instructor, examiner or certification representative is allowed to charge a reasonable fee to process it.

Tips that save time

• Use your full legal name exactly as it appears on your ID, and keep it the same on your IACRA profile, your medical application and your logbook.
• When you register in IACRA, you get an FAA Tracking Number (FTN). Keep it handy; you'll use it again for your knowledge test and your checkride.
• Double-check your mailing address, because the card comes by mail.
• Apply a few weeks before you expect to solo, not the week of.

The medical is a separate document

The student pilot certificate and the medical certificate used to be one document. They've been separate since April 2016. You get the medical from an FAA aviation medical examiner, and for most student pilots that's a third-class medical. The medical starts online too: before your appointment, you fill out the FAA's medical application in its MedXPress system, then bring the confirmation number to the exam.

You need both before you fly solo, and the FAA requires you to carry both whenever you're flying solo. If you're under 40 on the day of the exam, a third-class medical lasts through the end of the 60th month after the month of the exam. If you're 40 or older, it lasts through the end of the 24th month (14 CFR 61.23).

It doesn't expire

Student pilot certificates issued after April 1, 2016 have no expiration date. You keep yours until you earn a higher certificate, such as your private pilot certificate, which replaces it.

Your endorsements go in your logbook

The certificate itself carries no endorsements. Your instructor puts them in your logbook:

• A solo endorsement for each make and model of airplane you'll fly solo
• A separate endorsement before you fly solo cross-country
• Fresh solo endorsements every 90 days, because a student pilot's solo endorsement is good for 90 days (14 CFR 61.87)

Before your first solo, your instructor also gives you a pre-solo knowledge test, covers specific pre-solo maneuvers and procedures with you, and makes sure you're ready.

Don't confuse it with the citizenship check

The student pilot certificate comes from the FAA. The citizenship check is a separate federal requirement from TSA: before flight training begins, a flight school has to see proof that you're a U.S. citizen, such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate (49 CFR part 1552). Non-citizens need TSA approval before training starts. You'll handle both early on, but they're different processes.

A sensible order

1. Take a first lesson. No certificate is needed.
2. Book your FAA medical exam early, so any questions come up before you've invested much in training.
3. Start your IACRA application with your instructor a few weeks before you expect to solo.
4. Pass the pre-solo knowledge test and the pre-solo training.
5. Solo, with the endorsement in your logbook and both certificates in your pocket.

Training at Cornerstone

Cornerstone Flight Academy trains student pilots at Redlands Municipal Airport (KREI). Your instructor will walk you through IACRA and the rest of the paperwork as part of your training. You can read more about how it works on our training page.

Questions? Call or text (909) 330-4748, or visit flycornerstone.com.

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