Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

5 Answers

When are you Considered a Student Pilot

Asked by: 4613 views
Student Pilot

At what point is one considered a Student Pilot? After Starting or Completing Ground School? After they Start flying? After they have their medical? or After they have their Student Pilot Certificate?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

5 Answers



  1. Brian on Oct 26, 2012

    The moment they decide that they love and wish to learn how to fly. This is just my opinion however. I don’t know that there is a clear cut ‘politically correct’ answer, as it were. Perhaps the day you get your student pilot certificate?

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Nathan Parker on Oct 26, 2012

    As far as the FAA is concerned, a student pilot is one who has a student pilot certificate.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Matthew Waugh on Oct 28, 2012

    While I agree with Nathan (and Brian) – I’m interested in where the question is coming from, why would you ask it, and what situation has arisen that leads to the question?

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  4. Christopher Goodman on Oct 29, 2012

    @ Mr Brian & Mr Parker, Thanks for answering.
    @ Mr Waugh. I have completed ground school 3 yrs ago and I had gotten a 3rd class medical back then.

    I have since renewed my plans to go after my Pilots license. And i plan to be a career CFI once I earn that Title.

    I am restudying the ground school materials that I have from Jeppeson and am considering buying the CD’s for Sportys or the King School Cessna Programs to refresh until I can start flying after the 1st of the year.

    With that said, I would Still consider myself a student of Aviation at least, if not a Pilot in training since I do study the ground materials on a daily basis. But I don’t exactly walk around bragging that I am a student Pilot because I am not flying…Yet.
    -Christopher

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  5. Matthew Waugh on Oct 30, 2012

    Thanks for the explanation Christopher. You certainly are a Student of Aviation, and also a Pilot in Training (why else would you be doing the Ground school work) and I would consider you a student pilot if we were hanging out.

    In the long run it doesn’t matter – get your Private and solve the question forever 🙂

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.