Student Pilot Onboarding Checklist

Student pilot onboarding is everything that has to be true before a new student's first lesson, plus a few things that should be underway before their first solo. Before the first lesson: verify U.S. citizenship (or TSA approval for non-citizens) as 49 CFR 1552.7 requires, collect contact and emergency details, get your policies signed, and set up how the student will pay. In the first weeks: the FAA medical and the student pilot certificate application in IACRA, because a student needs both before solo.

The checklist below is one a front desk can actually run. It keeps the instructor from finding out on the ramp at 7 AM that nobody looked at a passport, and it keeps a first solo from slipping three weeks because the plastic certificate hasn't come in the mail.

Before the first lesson

1. Citizenship or TSA eligibility

TSA requires every flight training provider to establish that a student is a U.S. citizen or U.S. national, by examining government-issued documents, before providing any flight training (1552.7). A student who claims citizenship but can't produce acceptable documents must be denied training. TSA publishes the list of acceptable documents on the FTSP Portal. A valid, unexpired U.S. passport is the simplest. If a student brings a birth certificate instead, check the list for what has to go with it.

Non-citizens need a TSA Determination of Eligibility, confirmed on the FTSP Portal, before training starts. That takes time, so start it before you put them on the schedule.

Record the check. Under 1552.15, you can make the endorsement the regulation spells out in both the instructor's and the student's logbooks, keep copies of the documents, or manage the record in the FTSP Portal. Records are generally kept for at least 5 years.

A discovery flight is a demonstration flight for marketing purposes, which the rule excludes from "flight training" (1552.3). You don't need the passport for the intro flight. You need it before lesson one. The full rule is covered in TSA Flight Training Security Program rules for flight schools. Check the current program requirements with TSA.

2. The details instructors actually need

• Legal name exactly as it appears on the ID, since it has to match IACRA and the medical.
• Phone, email, and an emergency contact.
• Body weight, for weight and balance. Two adults and full fuel can put a two-seat trainer over gross, and it's better to find that out at the desk than on the ramp.
• Prior training, with the logbook, so the instructor can see what to credit.
• Which days and times they can fly every week.
• Their goal: a private certificate for fun, a career track, or a few lessons to see.

3. Signed policies

• Training or rental agreement.
• Cancellation and no-show policy, with any fee stated in dollars.
• Payment terms: prepaid balance, card charged after each flight, or a package.
• Safety rules: weather minimums for dual and solo, fuel reserves, where solo students may go.
• Consent to lesson texts and emails, if you send them.

If your attorney wants a waiver, it goes in the same packet.

4. Payment

Get a card on file, or a prepaid deposit, before the first lesson. Tell the student in plain words when they'll be charged: after each flight, when a balance runs low, or when a package runs out. The money conversation is easiest before anyone has flown, and a saved card makes a cancellation fee something you can actually collect. How to reduce no-shows goes further into that policy.

In the first two weeks

5. The FAA medical

A student needs at least a third-class medical certificate, or BasicMed under its own conditions, to exercise student pilot privileges, which in practice means before solo (14 CFR 61.23(a)(3)(i)). It starts in MedXPress, and the FAA says the AME exam has to happen within 60 days of submitting the application (FAA: how to get a medical certificate).

Tell every new student to start the medical before they've spent much on lessons, and say it twice to anyone who mentions a medical history or a prescription. The FAA advises gathering records ahead of the exam for some conditions, and a student who learns about a problem in week one is far better off than one who learns about it at 15 hours.

Under 61.23(d), a third-class medical used for student or private privileges lasts until the end of the 60th month after the exam month if the student was under 40 at the exam, and the 24th month if 40 or older. Enter the class and exam date, not just a scan. Tracking pilot medicals covers the rest.

6. Student pilot certificate through IACRA

To be eligible, a student must be at least 16 (14 for gliders and balloons) and able to read, speak, write, and understand English (61.83). The student applies in IACRA, and a CFI, designated pilot examiner, airman certification representative at a Part 141 school, or the FSDO processes the application (61.85) and verifies identity. The FAA mails the certificate in approximately three weeks (FAA: student pilot certificate).

The certificate isn't needed for lessons, only for solo. Start it in the first two weeks anyway, so it's never the reason a solo slips. Solo endorsements go in the logbook, not on the certificate.

7. Training record

Enroll the student in your syllabus, Part 61 or Part 141, and have the first lesson plan ready. Under Part 141, the training record is a regulatory requirement (141.101); under Part 61 it's still how the next instructor knows where the student is.

Hold bookings until student pilot onboarding is done

The front desk rule that saves the most trouble: no lesson goes on the schedule until items 1 through 4 are complete and someone on staff has reviewed them. Otherwise the instructor becomes the enforcer on the ramp, and the TSA check depends on somebody remembering.

In Sky Schedule, student enrollment runs as an online onboarding form. Students upload their ID and medical with expiration dates, sign your policy documents, answer your questions, and save a card, which is charged later rather than at sign-up. The school can require onboarding to be finished before a student can book, and staff approve each submission or mark it as needing changes. Approved documents show up with their expiration dates on the compliance dashboard.

What staff should check before approving

• The name matches across the ID, the citizenship document, and the medical.
• Every document is legible, unexpired, and complete, with nothing cut off.
• Expiration dates are entered, not only the file uploaded.
• Medical class and exam date are correct.
• Every policy is signed and dated.
• The card is saved or the deposit is in.
• The citizenship check is recorded the way your school does it.

If something is wrong, tell the student exactly what. "The photo page of the passport is cut off" gets fixed the same day. "Please fix your documents" gets a phone call.

Booking the first lesson

• Pair the student with one primary instructor whose availability matches theirs.
• Book a recurring block at a steady frequency instead of one lesson at a time. Long gaps between lessons mean relearning.
• Make the first block long enough for a slow preflight and a real debrief.
• Send them what to bring (ID, logbook, headset if they have one, water), where to park, and who will meet them.
• If they flew a discovery flight with you, move those notes into their record.

Onboard instructors the same way

New CFIs get a checklist too: copies of their pilot and flight instructor certificates, a medical if they'll act as pilot in command, flight instructor recent experience under 61.197, TSA security awareness training within 60 days of hire (1552.13), and a standardization flight with your chief instructor. Sky Schedule's onboarding builder works for instructors too, so most of this can be collected the same way.

Start by asking your front desk which item they chase most often for new students. Move that item to the top of your onboarding form and make it required before the first booking.