Flying between LST and PPL issue
Whopity
I concede I worded that last post very badly, I mustn't dress up opinion and conjecture as fact or law. I'll consider my words more carefully in future.
What I really should have said is that when I was an AFI and subsequently a junior FI, it was normal practice to be able to authorise and send people on "solo" flights after their GFT while waiting for the CAA to process their PPL. Then a few years ago, a "senior" FE who had just conducted a successful LST for a student at my club, said it was not legal to do that anymore. The JAA had come into being in that time and he inferred that was when things had changed, admittedly, I've never bothered to find an old copy of the ANO to check.
However, I stand by the point I was trying to make that once you've passed the LST, your PPL course must be complete, therefore the ANO article 52 exemption (below, sorry haven't figured out how to do quotes) to having an appropriate licence, does not apply, because you are no longer acting as PiC for the purpose of becoming qualified for the grant or renewal of a Pilot's licence or rating. Except of course you are doing a night qualification, or just possibly, building PiC time for a modular CPL.
Flight crew licence requirement – Exception for solo flying training
52.—(1) A person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft for the purpose of becoming qualified for the grant or renewal of a pilot’s licence or the inclusion or variation of any rating in a pilot’s licence within the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, without being the holder of an appropriate licence granted or rendered valid under this Order, if the conditions in paragraph (2) are satisfied.
(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) are that—
(a)the person is at least 16 years of age;
(b)the person is the holder of a valid medical certificate to the effect that the person is fit to act as pilot in command, issued by a person approved by the CAA;
(c)the person complies with any conditions subject to which that medical certificate was issued;
(d)no other person is carried in the aircraft;
(e)the aircraft is not flying for the purpose of commercial air transport, public transport or aerial work other than aerial work which consists of the giving of instruction in flying or the conducting of flying tests; and
(f)the person acts in accordance with instructions given by another person holding a pilot’s licence granted under this Order or a JAA licence, in each case being a licence which includes a flight instructor rating, a flying instructor’s rating or an assistant flying instructor’s rating entitling that other person to give instruction in flying the type of aircraft being flown.
So, no any FI cannot just send anyone over 16 with a medical solo whenever they feel like it, they have to satisfy the paragraph (1) criteria as well as paragraph (2). While I agree with your last sentence, that the intent of the law is not to be awkward with people in limbo between LST and PPL issue, that is what's been written. It wouldn't be the first time we've ended up with not quite the leglislation that was intended.