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4 Answers

Prior Student Continues to Solo With Possibly Expired Solo Endorsement

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FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, Student Pilot

I'm getting nervous here.  It seems as if I had one of those "professional students."  He was so serious about flight training that he bought into a flying club and has unrestricted access to a C172.  After completing nearly all of his experience requirements, he had failed to take his written or study for an oral.  A PPL practical was nowhere in site.  Since then, I took a job with a regional airline and discontinued all instruction with the student.  Nearly a year has passed, all of his logbook solo endorsements have expired, and said student is now posting pictures of himself soloing.  He jokingly gave me the name of a possibly fictitious CFI when I called to verify.  I have been unable to confirm with the very few local instructors in town that anybody has endorsed him.  If my suspicions are correct, is there any way I could be liable or in trouble with the FAA?  Should I report him right away and let the FSDO handle it?

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4 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 12, 2014

    If the flying club is allowing him to solo the aircraft without an endorsement, that would be foolish as well as illegal. If he were to have an accident, their insurance coverage would be void.

    Your liability would disappear on the last day that the student was legal to fly on your endorsement, at least as far as the FAA is concerned.

    Yes, you should report the situation to the local FSDO and let them verify whether he has the proper endorsements.

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  2. Brent on Sep 12, 2014

    Your question was whether or not you would have any legal or regulatory reason to do something about this situation, but I would encourage people in similar situations of being aware of unsafe behavior or practices to consider whether or not they have an ethical obligation to take action. What if the student pilot does have an accident, and instead of just harming himself and damaging the aircraft, someone on the ground or in another aircraft is killed? I’m not claiming to have any answers for this situation, I just want to provoke some reflection.

    It’s perhaps a bit heavy handed, but the ASI has a video case study on an accident that happened when there were people who perhaps could have done more about a situation they probably knew was unsafe: http://www.aopa.org/AOPA-Live.aspx?watch={4136FD83-ACB0-49B5-B7AF-D197000D19F7}

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  3. Brent on Sep 12, 2014

    Oops, that’s a broken link. You’ll have to cut and paste the whole link including what’s in the brackets for it to work right, or you can just google “accident case study everyone’s problem”

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  4. James c on Sep 13, 2014

    What state was this in?

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