It’s below the ratings, if it’s there, like this -
How small a world is it, he wasn’t a Fairbanks, was he?
No such limit in his record; this is the full certificate description:
No; he (and I) have a pretty uncommon Swiss surname.
The “Instrument Airplane” rating is something I knew about. My father (his brother) had told me that my uncle was a little paranoid about getting stuck up in the air when the weather suddenly goes south, and thus, he learned how to fly by instruments alone, just in case – however, he also would never go up in his plane if the weather forecast even had a hint of bad weather in it.
I guess this registry is only for civilian pilots? My uncle flew planes in WWII and was a flight instructor, but he’s not listed there. As far as I know he never flew after the war.
Hmmm…
I checked, and my license is there - from 1979.
Private Pilot (foreign based) (land and sea) Valid when accompanied by Canadian license, no night-time flying
At one point after I got my license, I found I could apply for an American license too based on my Canadian one.
No, my step-brother who flew for the US Navy in the 70’s through 90’s is there. It lists “commercial pilot” although AFAIK he never flew anything except military.
So is my nephew the airline pilot.
Same with my cousin. She was a carrier based helo pilot and she’s in there even though she did no flying once she got out.
Can you fly a plane solo with only a student license?
Yes. One typically solos around flight hour 5.
While that was probably true back when the rules were looser, it would be very early for most flight students these days.
When I was instructing I would have put the average around 15 hours, but it’s highly variable. How motivated is the student? How often do they come for lessons? Do they do their homework? They have to have a medical and pass a written test beforehand too. Myself, I was in no hurry when I learned to fly. I actually asked to repeat one lesson that I didn’t fully understand and eventually soloed with something like 22 hours.
Without all the modern rules and best practices, it could be done much sooner. Basic aircraft control isn’t that hard. But I’m glad we are careful about it now.
Wow…it wouldn’t surprise me if the trend was more time before soloing, but that is substantially higher.
When I did solo (it could have been 6, I’ll check my book), I was rather nervous, and all I was asked to do was one takeoff and landing, but it went alright; I even correctly negotiated a surprise cross breeze.
But I was far from an exceptional student, and I was told early on that 4-7 was typical.
Perhaps it varies based on the type of school (I forget precisely, but 141 vs. 135??)
Part 141 schools, such as Embry Riddle, are highly structured and I have no personal experience with them. But I would guess that the restrictions they work under delay solo.
Part 91 schools can be more flexible, but time to solo is affected by other factors - experience and comfort level of the instructors, etc.
I always encouraged students to not fixate on time to solo, having first pledged that I would do everything I could to make it happen in a reasonable period. There have always been stories about unscrupulous instructors stringing people along without signing them off, and I even hear about this at some of the 141 programs.
Looking back, my first solo was pretty routine. Which was indeed the goal. Initial solo students should do a few patterns with full stop landings, exactly as they’ve done many times with their CFI. I was much more freaked out on my first flight as an airline pilot. That’s a normal revenue trip, but with a qualified training captain, and it’s the first flight in the real airplane after sim training. I felt a lot of pressure that day, though much of it was pressure I put on myself.
End of hijack (a term to be avoided in aviation threads!).
Sorta.
What that means is that while they were in, or just after getting out, they applied for the civilian commercial license that the FAA grants to military pilots on little more than a quiz.
So they did obtain a civil license even if they never once used it.
A military pilot that did not avail themselves of the gratis civil license would not appear in the civil license database.
It’s real common for military pilots leaving the service to take advantage of that nil-cost nil-effort option “just in case”.
It’s an entirely different kind of flying, altogether!
Haven’t looked to see if I am in there. As LSLGuy says took a written test when in Army flight school and have a commercial instrument rotocraft license. Hadn’t flown since I got out of the Army in 1985 until two years ago wife got me an hour of time in a Bell 47. The MASH helicopter, always wanted to fly one. Had to be with an instructor but was like riding a bike, could even hover still. Best Christmas gift ever.
Confirmed: I’m a real idiot. I just checked my original logbook; it was at 11ish hours that I had my first solo.
Apologies all. Hopefully that will be the stupidest thing I do this week.
Cool, I’m in there despite being long expired.
I tried to look up my grandfather, who was AAF in WW2 and later a private pilot, but I think he stopped flying in the 1960s, and he wasn’t listed. Not sure how far back the records go.
My dad is listed as Feb 1973, though he was licensed decades before that, going back to the late 1940’s.
As mentioned above, the date given is the most recent date the pilot had a certificate change, not the original issue date. Although it’d be really cool were that original date to be made available also.
This bit:
suggests that Jan 1959 is a watershed date in their records. Before then they evidently know facts, but not dates. The fact FAA itself was formed from predecessor agencies in late 1958 suggests that’s close to the limits of its accessible recorded history.
@LSLGuy Do you know why there’s a Parachute Seal Symbol box on the Search form?
Do pilots need certificates to carry a parachute on the plane?
Harrison Ford can afford the training time in a Flight Simulator. Get advanced ratings.
Certificate: PRIVATE PILOT
Date of Issue: 10/5/2023
Ratings:
PRIVATE PILOT
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE SEA
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE SEA
INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE
ROTORCRAFT-HELICOPTER
Type Ratings:
P/CE-525 P/CE-680
Limits:
ENGLISH PROFICIENT.
CE-525 SECOND IN COMMAND REQUIRED.
That baffled me completely. No clue.
I dug up the records on someone who I know has civilian parachute instructor licence and that info wasn’t retrieved either. Color me baffled why that’s there or what it does.
Definitely not. Performing aerobatics requires that all occupants be wearing parachutes. But they require zero training in using them and certainly no certification.
As to Mr. Ford, I note that he has the type rating in the version of Cessna Citation that can be flown single pilot. But with the endorsement that Ford himself requires a co-pilot along with him.
Which is bureaucratic code for him not meeting all the experience or skill standards to be turned loose alone. Now that’s not suggesting he got special celebrity treatment. Just that there are evidently two gradations of type ratings for the single pilot bizjets: [good / experienced enough to fly alone] and [not good / experienced enough to fly alone]. He apparently qualified for the latter, but not the former.
Google tells me it’s to look up FAA Certificated Parachute Riggers by their seal ID. (Warning, PDF.)
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