FAA Pilot Certification

In the United States pilot certification  is required for an individual to get a job as a pilot of an aircraft. It’s regulated by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), a branch of the DOT (Department of Transportation). A pilot is certified under the authority of Parts 61 and 141 of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, also known as the FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations).

Basically, an FAA-issued pilot certificate is the evidence that a person can  exercise piloting privileges and is completely authorized to do it. The pilot certificate is one of several types of airman certificates which are issued by the FAA.

Responsibilities of the FAA-certified Pilot

FAA enforcement actions generally begin with either an FAA inspector learning or witnessing the FAR violation. If the FAA proves that there is basis for enforcement action, the organisation will issue a Letter of Investigation that gives within ten days an airman an option to respond or not. It’s the point when the airman should look for the help of an aviation attorney, if they haven’t already done so.

There are some instances where a carefully written explanation with argument and facts is able convince the FAA to drop the case and clear all charges. In case of if the FAA is continuing its efforts against the pilot, the above mentioned should typically issue a civil penalty (or Notice of Proposed Certificate Action) if they don’t consider the matter an emergency.

At this point the pilot has three following options:

• formally appeal the case before an NTSB administrative law judge,
• ask for an informal conference to be conducted with an FAA attorney at an regional FAA office,
• surrender their certificate.

If either the FAA or pilot the are not content with what the judges has decided to do, the case can be appealed to the full NTSB board. After that the appeal may be taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

If for one or another reason after learning of an FAR violation the FAA thinks that an emergency response is absolutely required, they may issue an Emergency Revocation Order, after getting which the pilot must immediately surrender all certificates. If the pilot refuses to surrender all their certificates, it may result in a possible one thousan and a hundred dollars per-day penalty to pay. The pilot may appeal the emergency aspect of the order, however this must be done within two days of receipt of the order.

If the pilot doesn’t use the two-day appeal, they have to surrender all certificates however then can still file an appeal as described in the paragraph above. If the FAA discovers certain acts, for example, falsifying certificate applications and airman logbooks, it will undoubtedly result in emergency revocation of all certificates, and successful appeals are extremely rare at this point of time.

Getting a FAA Certificate for the Fireigh Pilots

It’s not surprising that the United States has become a what you can call wary about aliens flying light aircraft and foreign students training in the USA within the US territory. The times when a lot of foreign pilots could stroll into the local FAA office and leave an hour later with an FAA pilot privilege attached to their license, but it’s not the same nowadays.

The FAA now want to do a security check a long time before you visit to make sure that the pilot wants both to fly and, what’s important, to land their airplane. This regulations might certainly  dissuade UK pilots from looking for cut-price training deals in the US where they learn to fly with alien radio dictionary, with different procedures and in totally different conditions.

However, it’s absolutely possible for the students on the basis of their foreign pilot license to get a “Restricted” FAA Private Pilot Certificate. A person who is applying for a U.S. pilot rating /certificate on the basis of a foreign license must go through an authentication process at least sixty days before arriving at the designated FAA FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) where the applicant can expect to receive the U.S. pilot certificate.