My new plastic pilot's license

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been thinking about getting current (new Medical certificate, Biennial Flight Review, etc.) and I decided to replace my little grey piece of paper with one of the newfangled plastic Airmans Certificates. Well, there was a nice little envelope from the FAA in the mail today. My new license was in it. It has greenish overtones with a passenger jet and the Wright Flyer on the front, along with my identifying information. The back has the Flyer again, with photos of Wilbur and Orville, and my Private Pilot ratings for helicopters and single-engine land airplanes.

Yup. It’s mundane, all right. But I like it.

2

Sounds rather slick - may have to get one.

Once upon a time (quite some time ago) all pilot licenses were personally signed by Orville. I’ve seen a couple owned by some real oldtimers (now, sadly, no longer with us). I wish I had one of those.

3

Sounds nice. I guess from your description, they don’t have a picture (of you) on them yet.

Our are still just the standard paper (grey for glider, blue for power… Not sure of the other ones) I doubt they plan to replace them either… I guess it’d get too expensive to issue new plastic ones with every licence/rating.

4

For those who are interested:

http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen_certification/certificate_replacement/

I haven’t done this, not sure I will. (I did laminate my current one)

Brian

5

Sounds good. My Australian licence is a small booklet/folder that holds all 8 pages of the licence and all 4 pages of the medical certificate. The only good thing about it is that there are a couple of extra sleeves that I can keep my NZ licence and medical in.

Honestly, the thing is bigger than my passport.

6

If you’ve got the same plastic FAA ticket I’ve got, the plane on the back is a glider (no engine/props) instead of the famed Flyer. If you look closely, there’s writing along the leading edge of the glider’s wings, and along Wilbur and Orville’s collars.

7

I’ll be darned. You’re right. I only gave the back of the certificate a cursory glance; but looking again, I see I was mistaken. I stand corrected.

Here’s an image from AOPA’s site.

I once read an article in Flying or AOPA Pilot where the author was hanging out with UK pilots. He said that their certificates were booklets like yours, and he felt his little grey piece of paper was inadequate by comparison.

8

The plane on the front appears to be a 737-200, which at this point is almost as old a design as the Flyer, anyway.

Yes, that’s a glider on the back.