Solo Requirements and Endorsements

A student pilot must not fly solo until the student meets each requirement of section 61.87. The rule: "A student pilot may not operate an aircraft in solo flight unless that student has met the requirements of this section" 1. Solo flight has a definition. The term "means that flight time during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft" 1. A flight with an instructor in the right seat is not solo, even if the instructor never touches the controls. A flight with an empty right seat is solo.

The written test

Before solo, the student must show satisfactory knowledge on a written test. Section 61.87(b): "A student pilot must demonstrate satisfactory aeronautical knowledge on a knowledge test that meets the requirements of this paragraph" 2. At North Aero the test is the pre-solo exam for the Warrior. The rule names three subjects the test must address:

• "Applicable sections of parts 61 and 91 of this chapter"
• "Airspace rules and procedures for the airport where the solo flight will be performed"
• "Flight characteristics and operational limitations for the make and model of aircraft to be flown" 2.

The regulations, the home airport's airspace, and the airplane are the three subjects. A test that skips one of them does not meet the rule.

Who gives it, and what happens to the misses

The student's own authorized instructor administers the test. Section 61.87(b)(2): "The student's authorized instructor must— (i) Administer the test; and (ii) At the conclusion of the test, review all incorrect answers with the student before authorizing that student to conduct a solo flight" 2. A passing score alone does not complete the requirement. The instructor reviews each incorrect answer with the student before authorizing the solo. A student who scored well but never reviewed the wrong answers with the instructor cannot solo.

Before solo, the student must receive and log flight training in the 61.87(d) maneuvers for the make and model. Section 61.87(c): "Prior to conducting a solo flight, a student pilot must have: (1) Received and logged flight training for the maneuvers and procedures of this section that are appropriate to the make and model of aircraft to be flown" 3. The logbook is the evidence. A maneuver flown but never logged does not meet the rule.

Proficient and safe

An authorized instructor must judge the student proficient and safe. The second half of 61.87(c): "Demonstrated satisfactory proficiency and safety, as judged by an authorized instructor, on the maneuvers and procedures required by this section in the make and model of aircraft or similar make and model of aircraft to be flown" 3. The instructor makes the judgment in the make and model to be flown, or a similar one.

The fifteen areas

Section 61.87(d) lists fifteen training areas for a single-engine airplane 4. The first is flight preparation and the last is go-arounds:

• flight preparation, powerplant operation, and systems
• taxiing and run-ups
• takeoffs and landings, normal and crosswind
• straight and level, and turns both ways
• climbs and climbing turns
• traffic patterns, entry and departure
• collision, windshear, and wake turbulence avoidance
• descents with and without turns, high and low drag
• flight at airspeeds from cruise to slow flight
• stalls
• emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions
• ground reference maneuvers
• approaches with simulated engine malfunctions
• slips to a landing
• go-arounds.

Stalls are "Stall entries from various flight attitudes and power combinations with recovery initiated at the first indication of a stall, and recovery from a full stall" 4. The rule requires both recoveries, one at the first indication and one from the full stall. Emergencies are "Emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions" and "Approaches to a landing area with simulated engine malfunctions" 4. The last two items are "Slips to a landing" and "Go-arounds" 4. A student who has never flown a slip or a go-around does not meet the rule, even with good landings.

Solo flight requires a logbook endorsement for the specific make and model. Section 61.87(n): "A student pilot may not operate an aircraft in solo flight unless that student pilot has received an endorsement in the student's logbook for the specific make and model aircraft to be flown by an authorized instructor who gave the training within the 90 days preceding the date of the flight" 5. The sentence sets three conditions:

• the endorsement is in the logbook, for the specific make and model
• the endorsement came from an authorized instructor who gave training
• that training was within the 90 days before the flight.

Make and model

An endorsement for one make and model does not authorize a different one. The rule says "the specific make and model aircraft to be flown" 5. A Warrior endorsement is not an Archer endorsement, and a Cessna 172 endorsement is not a 152 endorsement. The student solos what the logbook names.

The 90 days

Before any solo flight, the student confirms the endorsement is inside its 90-day window. There is no grace period. The 90 days count from the training the endorsing instructor gave, not from the endorsement date, and the flight date must fall within them 5. On day 91 the student flies with an instructor or does not fly. The endorsement date is a preflight item, along with the fuel and the weather.

Night solo has its own three requirements. Section 61.87(o): "A student pilot may not operate an aircraft in solo flight at night unless that student pilot has received" the following 6:

• "Flight training at night on night flying procedures that includes takeoffs, approaches, landings, and go-arounds at night at the airport where the solo flight will be conducted"
• "Navigation training at night in the vicinity of the airport where the solo flight will be conducted"
• "An endorsement in the student's logbook for the specific make and model aircraft to be flown for night solo flight by an authorized instructor who gave the training within the 90-day period preceding the date of the flight" 6.

The night training must be at the airport of the night solo. The night navigation training is in the vicinity of that airport. The night endorsement is a separate endorsement, for the make and model, within 90 days.

The day endorsement is not a night endorsement

A current day-solo endorsement never authorizes a solo at night. The day endorsement satisfies 61.87(n). The night solo needs 61.87(o) as well, and (o) names a separate endorsement "for night solo flight" 6. Night begins, for this rule, at the end of evening civil twilight under section 1.1 7. A student whose day endorsement is current and whose logbook has no night endorsement lands before evening civil twilight ends.

Section 61.87(p) binds the instructor. "No instructor may authorize a student pilot to perform a solo flight unless that instructor has—" and four items follow 8:

• "Given that student pilot training in the make and model of aircraft or a similar make and model of aircraft in which the solo flight is to be flown"
• "Determined the student pilot is proficient in the maneuvers and procedures prescribed in this section"
• "Determined the student pilot is proficient in the make and model of aircraft to be flown"
• "Endorsed the student pilot's logbook for the specific make and model aircraft to be flown" 8.

The signing instructor must first train this student in this make and model or a similar one. The instructor must also determine proficiency in the 61.87 maneuvers, and, separately, proficiency in the specific make and model. An instructor who has never flown with the student cannot sign.

Keeping it current

The endorsement stays current only while an authorized instructor updates the logbook each 90 days. Paragraph (p)(4): the endorsement "remains current for solo flight privileges, provided an authorized instructor updates the student's logbook every 90 days thereafter" 8. Any authorized instructor who meets 61.87(p) can make the update. The updating instructor need not be the original endorser. The rule says "an authorized instructor," not "that instructor" 8. The updating instructor must also train the student in the make and model and determine proficiency before signing.

The flight of N4303G

On April 20, 2021, at 8:52 in the evening, a Piper Arrow spiraled into the ground near Brownsville, Tennessee. "The student pilot and passenger were fatally injured" 9. The pilot was a 55-year-old student pilot with 135 hours, 108 of them in the Arrow he owned. His third-class medical expired on January 31, 2021. He told his instructor he renewed it in February, and "the FAA had no record of such medical examination nor any record the pilot attempted to complete the FAA BasicMed Certification" 9.

He and his instructor "met mid-morning to discuss a solo cross-country flight from Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Houston, Texas, to Kyle-Oakley Field Airport (CEY), Murray, Kentucky. The student told the instructor that he needed to visit his father, who had recently been admitted to the hospital. The flight instructor stated that 'it was supposed to be a daytime flight,' expecting the student to depart no later than 1300 or 1400 due to the weather coming in later in the evening" 9. The instructor gave a current 90-day solo endorsement and a route endorsement. He "asked the pilot three times before the flight, 'do you need me to go with you?' The pilot declined the offers" 9. He "had no knowledge that the pilot planned to depart with a passenger" 9.

The passenger was the pilot's mother. She "needed to arrive at the destination airport on the day of the accident due to her meeting another family member for a planned vacation." The pilot planned to leave by 2 in the afternoon, but "his iPad was not connecting to the internet, and he was at the cellular carrier until about 1645 to resolve the issue." Her sister "insisted that they make it there by Tuesday and the pilot expressed that 'he could make a detoured route where the weather was not as bad'" 9. "The pilot did not receive a weather briefing before departure" 9.

He took off at 5:20 in the evening and flew three and a half hours northeast, at 7,000 to 9,000 feet, into the night. Near the destination, on flight following, the Memphis Center controller told him of "moderate precipitation 'starting now lasting all the way to the [destination] airport,'" and that "everything between now and [CEY] is on the verge of being i f r [instrument flight rule] conditions. It looks likes ceilings are down around about 1,500 ft most everywhere" 9. The controller named airports still VFR and suggested a course east. "The pilot acknowledged the controller and said he would fly east to stay out of the weather," and "About 35 seconds later, a 'mayday' call was announced over the radio" 9. The Arrow's Vne was 185 knots calibrated. In the spiral "the airplane reached a maximum recorded speed of about 270 KCAS" 9.

The pilot's logbook recorded an earlier diversion on the same route. On his previous solo cross-country over that route, in 2019, the entry read "cross-country to KCEY but set down KDYR/ Weather" 9. That day he diverted. The NTSB's probable cause: "The student pilot's continued visual flight rules flight into night instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in spatial disorientation and a rapid uncontrolled descent into terrain. Contributing to the accident were the self-induced and external pressures that likely influenced the pilot's decision to both initiate and continue the flight" 9.

Where the pilot could have prevented the accident

A student pilot flew a solo cross-country with a passenger aboard, at night, into instrument conditions, with an expired medical. Each decision below is marked with the PAVE category that applied to it.

Section 61.89(a) lists eight things a student pilot must not do as pilot in command. The first is the passenger. "A student pilot may not act as pilot in command of an aircraft: (1) That is carrying a passenger" 10. There is no exception for family or for another student. A licensed pilot who is not an instructor is a passenger too. The next three are money and business:

• "(2) That is carrying property for compensation or hire"
• "(3) For compensation or hire"
• "(4) In furtherance of a business" 10.

A student must not carry freight for pay. A student must not accept pay to fly, and must not fly as part of a business. A student who flies to a job site for the employer flies in furtherance of a business.

International flight

A student pilot must not make international flights. Item (5) bars a flight "On an international flight, except that a student pilot may make solo training flights from Haines, Gustavus, or Juneau, Alaska, to White Horse, Yukon, Canada, and return over the province of British Columbia" 10. That named route is the single exception. Everywhere else, a border is a limit.

Solo by day requires 3 statute miles of visibility, and solo at night requires 5. Item (6) bars flight "With a flight or surface visibility of less than 3 statute miles during daylight hours or 5 statute miles at night" 10. The rule says flight or surface visibility. It applies in the air, not only at takeoff. A student whose visibility drops below 3 miles en route is outside the limit at that moment. The student lands or turns back to where the visibility is legal.

Visual reference to the surface

A student pilot must not fly without visual reference to the surface. Item (7) bars flight "When the flight cannot be made with visual reference to the surface" 10. A student on a solo flight must not climb above a solid cloud layer, even in clear air. The air above the layer can be clear for a hundred miles. The rule still applies, because the surface is not in view. A solo student stays under the layer or does not go.

Stricter than basic VFR

The student pilot's visibility limits are stricter than basic VFR. In Class G below 1,200 feet AGL by day, section 91.155 allows a private pilot 1 statute mile clear of clouds 11. The student's minimum there is 3 miles by day and 5 at night, from 61.89 10. A day that is legal for a private pilot can be illegal for a student solo. Both rules apply at once, and the stricter one governs.

Any limitation an authorized instructor writes in the logbook is binding. Item (8) bars flight "In a manner contrary to any limitations placed in the pilot's logbook by an authorized instructor" 10. The limitation can be anything the instructor writes, for example:

• a wind limit
• a ceiling
• a route
• a time of day.

Each has the force of the regulation. A crosswind limit of 8 knots in the logbook is a 61.89 limit.

The crew seat

A student pilot must not act as a required crewmember on an airplane that requires more than one pilot. Section 61.89(b): "A student pilot may not act as a required pilot flight crewmember on any aircraft for which more than one pilot is required by the type certificate of the aircraft or regulations under which the flight is conducted" 12.

The gate at Lesson 18

The pre-solo exam gates the first solo lesson. The student takes the exam and the instructor grades it. They review each miss together before the solo lesson goes on the schedule. That sequence is section 61.87(b) applied to the schedule 2.

Schedule pressure does not change a solo gate. A lapsed 90-day endorsement ends the solo plan, and so does weather below the 61.89 minimums, whoever is waiting 5. The list of external pressures includes each of these:

• a passenger who cannot be disappointed
• a person waiting at the airport.

Each is a reason to stop and not a reason to go.

Solo privileges are in the logbook

Solo privileges are in the logbook, not on the certificate. The student pilot certificate carries no endorsement. The endorsements are the authorization, and on solo cross-country flights the student carries the logbook and the certificate as evidence of them. Section 61.51(i)(2): "A student pilot must carry the following items in the aircraft on all solo cross-country flights as evidence of the required authorized instructor clearances and endorsements— (i) Pilot logbook; (ii) Student pilot certificate; and (iii) Any other record required by this section" 13. A student who lands away from home without the logbook cannot show the authorization to fly there.