That’s not actually true; ask a competent FAA AME.
Until you have a licence you are not a pilot, therefore as a student pilot an instructor can authorise solo flight. Never been a problem in the past.
That is true for PPL (EASA & CAA), no licence yet !
US is different as one has “FAA student pilot” which has generic solo authorisation but no pax? passing checkride seems to only removed pax restriction?
For ratings, I recall one can get TMG, SEP, IR, IMC with temporary 3 months rating certificates untill their rating is printed but it’s up to examiners…
Ibra wrote:
“FAA student pilot” [..] has generic solo authorisation but no pax? passing checkride seems to only removed pax restriction?
Yes, it is solo (or with instructor) only. But you need an endorsement for local flights (valid for for 90 days). For cross country flights you also need an instructor endorsement for each individual flight.
By the way, you do not need to send a certified copy of your licence to the UK CAA if the last person to edit the licence was the CAA themselves. You just need to send them a photocopy of it.
The certified copy is when revalidations etc have been entered onto the licence by an examiner.
It also costs extra because you are paying for the instructor rate even though he/she is sitting on the ground. And can’t go abroad, can’t fly in less than 10k vis / less than 3000ft cloudbase / etc according to the local custom.
The CAA have this great process whereby they screen applications to make sure everything is present. The problem is that they seem to only look at the applications once every couple of weeks or so. The other problem is that they look through the application until a problem is found. It appears that they stop looking any further at that point, and email you with the problem before putting the application back to the bottom of the pile. So, if there are 3 problems in the application, it will take 3 “screening cycles” until you have all the problems solved, instead of someone just going through it in one go.
Two weeks ago I received an email about my IR(R) application, saying that they needed a certified copy of my PPL, despite that same department issuing said licence 3 months ago. This is not requested in the application form.
Today, they kindly informed me about the next problem, which was to do with the scans in my logbook.
It’s like playing whack-a-mole, maybe in another 6 weeks we’ll have the problems sorted and the application can go into the “real” application pile for another 6 weeks.
A friend of mine just applied for his LAPL, and the PPL/LAPL forms do not require a logbook copy. There is also no facility to upload logbook copies on the online application. He thought ahead and included copies of the logbook in the scan with the course completion form and uploaded it on the online application portal. He also emailed all of the required forms, including logbook copies to the CAA with everything spelled out very clearly.
Today, you guessed it, they came back asking for logbook copies.
Someone at the school I used just got a PPL issued, but received the PPL printed on ATC licence paper. This is especially funny because the CAA say they do a “quality control” process before dispatch, which takes 1-2 weeks.
Another individual applied for her PPL at the end of August, and a week ago received an email requesting the medical certificate of the examiner.
It really is laughably bad.
The CAA now require certified copies of logbooks for all PPL applications and I assume LAPL’sas well. I don’t know about other ratings. This has been a new change that they introduced without telling anyone.
Perhaps my favourite was the rejection of on-line PPL and LAPL applications because you hadn’t used the new course completion certificate. And it goes without saying if you clicked on the link on their website you downloaded the old form.
IO390 wrote:
Two weeks ago I received an email about my IR(R) application, saying that they needed a certified copy of my PPL, despite that same department issuing said licence 3 months ago. This is not requested in the application form.Today, they kindly informed me about the next problem, which was to do with the scans in my logbook.
Ah! Been there. After having the same issues with my PPL application, for Night rating I’ve sent them the original logbook and a summary describing the hours on a separate piece of paper. At that moment they said that they still have issues with that and they requested the school records from the CFI (with THE SAME info), after which they’ve issued a new license with the rating.
I’m afraid until they switch to “database-primary” method of operation (and having all the paperwork as secondary), it is going to continue to be a mess.
The CAA here seems to have an unlimited capacity for employing totally clueless people and for supporting an environment in which they continue to work there.
Indications I have seen is that the middle management is able to totally BS the top management, so the latter really thinks the organisation is doing a great job. Well, BS-ing the top management is one of middle management functions 
but the CAA here takes it to new levels.
