Definition
Pilots who hold a student pilot certificate issued under 14 CFR Part 61, authorizing them to receive flight training and act as pilot in command only under specific limitations, including operating under the supervision and endorsement of an authorized flight instructor.
Plain English
People learning to fly who hold a special beginner certificate that lets them train and fly solo only when their instructor has signed them off to do so.
Context Anchor
In the preventive maintenance chapter, this term matters when reading which pilots may or may not perform certain maintenance tasks under FAA rules.
Derivation
Student comes from a Latin word meaning someone who is eager or applying effort to learn. Pilot originally referred to a person who guides or steers a vessel. Together, student pilots means people learning to guide an aircraft as pilots under FAA limits.
Why Pilots Care
A student pilot's privileges are narrower than those of a certificated private pilot. Certain activities — including some preventive maintenance tasks — require at least a private pilot certificate, so a student pilot needs to know what they are and aren't authorized to do.
Intuition Check
Do not read student pilots as just "any people taking flying lessons." In FAA use, student pilots are people with a specific FAA student pilot certificate and limited pilot privileges.
Example Sentence 1
Student pilots may not perform preventive maintenance on an aircraft, since that privilege is reserved for pilots holding at least a private pilot certificate.
Example Sentence 2
Student pilots logged their cross-country flight time in the aircraft that had just received preventive maintenance.