How Do You Obtain a Student Pilot Certificate After a Break in Training?

Just sit down with the lapsed learner and create a new application online.

Meg Godlewski

Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 10:53 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

Old style student certificate/medical. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]

Key Takeaways:

A student pilot with a paper certificate dated 2002 likely does not have an existing IACRA account, as these were issued by aviation medical examiners (AMEs) and not through the current digital system.
The flight instructor should simply create a new IACRA application for the student, following the prompts, to obtain a new plastic student pilot certificate.
New requirements since 2002 necessitate verifying the student's citizenship and providing them with a TSA endorsement.

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Question: I am a newly certificated flight instructor, and a lapsed student pilot has asked me to finish his training. He has one of the old paper student pilot certificates dated 2002. How do I fill out the integrated airman certification and rating application (IACRA) without messing things up if he already has a student certificate on file?

Answer: You’re in luck. The paper student pilot certificate was issued by the aviation medical examiner (AME) and not done through IACRA as we know it, so it is doubtful the learner already has an IACRA account.