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IACRA is the FAA's free online system for applying for pilot certificates and ratings, from your first student pilot certificate to every checkride after it. You register once, get an FAA Tracking Number (FTN) that follows you for your whole flying career, fill out the electronic FAA Form 8710-1, and then your instructor and examiner sign it electronically. This guide walks you through each step and the mistakes that delay new pilots.
Register as an Applicant once. Your FTN stays the same for every certificate and rating you ever earn, so never create a second account.
Your legal name must match your photo ID and your knowledge test record exactly. Mismatches are the most common cause of delays.
An instructor, examiner or FAA inspector must verify your identity in person and sign before the FAA receives your application.
Apply for your student pilot certificate early in training. You need it before your first solo in an airplane.
When you pass a practical test, the examiner issues a temporary certificate valid for up to 120 days under 14 CFR 61.17 while the permanent card is processed.
IACRA stands for Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application. It is the FAA's web-based system at iacra.faa.gov for preparing, signing and submitting airman applications. Before IACRA, almost everything went on a paper FAA Form 8710-1 that had to be reviewed by hand at a Flight Standards District Office. Today, IACRA checks your application for errors as you go, captures digital signatures from you, your instructor and your examiner, and sends the finished file to the FAA's Airmen Certification Branch electronically.
According to FAA Advisory Circular 61-141, applications submitted through IACRA generally process faster and are less likely to be returned than paper forms, because IACRA performs much of the review that FSDO staff would otherwise do. That is why most flight schools, including ours at Van Nuys Airport, have students build their applications in IACRA from day one.
You will use IACRA several times over a flying career: for your student pilot certificate, your private pilot certificate, an instrument rating, a commercial certificate, and later for flight instructor and airline transport pilot applications.
Registration takes about ten minutes. Go to the IACRA website, click Register, and choose the Applicant role. Accept the terms of service and complete the user profile. The FAA's own instructions emphasize a few details worth getting right:
When you click Register, IACRA displays your FAA Tracking Number and also emails it to you. Write it down. Your instructor and examiner will ask for it to find your application, and you will use the same FTN at the testing center when you take your FAA knowledge test. If you forget your login, use IACRA's account recovery options instead of opening a new account; duplicate accounts create a mess in the FAA's records.
Your first IACRA application is usually the student pilot certificate. Under 14 CFR 61.83, you must be at least 16 years old to hold a student pilot certificate for an airplane, and under 61.87 you need it, along with the required endorsements, before you can fly solo. FAA guidance in AC 61-141 recommends applying at least 60 days before a 16th birthday if you plan to solo a powered aircraft right away, so teen students should start this early. Our teen flight training team helps families with the timing.
Log in, start a new application, select Pilot and then Student Pilot, and complete the personal information: date of birth, address, height, weight, hair and eye color, citizenship and the questions about drug-related convictions. Then meet your certifying official in person. Under AC 61-141, a flight instructor registered in IACRA as a Recommending Instructor can accept student pilot applications, as can a designated pilot examiner (DPE), an Airman Certification Representative (ACR) at a certificated school, or an aviation safety inspector at a FSDO.
Your instructor checks your photo ID, confirms you can read, speak, write and understand English, and signs the application. After the FAA receives it and TSA vetting is complete, IACRA applicants can download a temporary student pilot certificate, and the permanent plastic certificate arrives later by mail. Paper applicants do not get a temporary certificate, which is one more reason to use IACRA. Your instructor cannot issue a student pilot certificate on the spot; only the Airmen Certification Branch can.
When you approach your first practical test, you will start a new IACRA application for the certificate or rating, such as Private Pilot, Airplane Single-Engine Land. This application is the electronic Form 8710-1 that your examiner reviews before the checkride. It asks for:
Total your logbook carefully before you type anything. Examiners compare every number on the application to your logbook, and an error can mean the application must be returned and re-signed. For private pilot applicants, the totals must show the experience required by 14 CFR 61.109, including at least 40 hours of flight time with 20 hours of instruction and 10 hours of solo. Our instructors review the numbers with you during your final stage check so there are no surprises.
Once your application is complete, your Recommending Instructor logs in, finds you by FTN, reviews the application, enters the Knowledge Test ID from your Airman Knowledge Test Report and validates the test data, then signs. That signature is the electronic form of the recommendation that you are prepared for the test.
On test day, your examiner, the certifying officer, imports your application using your FTN and application details. Before the test begins, the examiner verifies your identity in person and you sign the application electronically while they watch. Then you fly.
If you pass, the examiner completes the IACRA steps and issues your temporary airman certificate, which 14 CFR 61.17 makes valid for up to 120 days while the FAA issues the permanent card. IACRA's FAQ notes that the electronic signature on the temporary certificate is sufficient and that the application is transmitted to the Airman Registry the same day or the next day. Check the FAA's current registry processing dates page if you want an idea of how long the plastic card will take.
If the test is not completed, the examiner issues either a Notice of Disapproval or a Letter of Discontinuance through IACRA. Under 14 CFR 61.43(f), you keep credit for the areas you passed only if you complete the remaining areas within 60 days of a discontinuance and bring the original letter to the retest. Your IACRA application can usually be reused for the retest with a new instructor endorsement where required.
Most IACRA problems are small and preventable. Here are the ones we see most often with students training at Van Nuys Airport:
Paperwork is part of becoming a pilot, but it should never be the thing that slows you down. Our instructors use IACRA every week, both as Recommending Instructors for student pilot applications and to prepare checkride applications. We sit down with you, review your logbook, check endorsements and make sure the application matches your records before your examiner ever sees it.
Training happens at 7900 Balboa Blvd in the Main Terminal at Van Nuys Airport, and we are open 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week. You can train on the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper PA-28 Warrior and Diamond DA20, step up to the complex Piper Arrow and the twin-engine Piper Seminole, or learn in the glass cockpit of a Cirrus SR22 Turbo. See the full fleet and our Redbird MCX full-motion simulator. If you are planning a career, our Airline Pilot Program is $84,000 (regularly $89,000, with a $5,000 promotion), and financing is available.
What to bring, how the oral and flight portions work, and how to prepare.
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