Aveling wrote:
“See that gas station? Go there, you can get anything”. Even Guinness.
This made my day 
A quick anecdote: friend of a friend flies for Cathay Pacific, and years ago (Tokyo-London?) they had to divert to a Russian airport for some mechanical problem. With their ICAO ‘Crew’ cards the pilots and cabin crew sailed through the airport and spent the night in a hotel, but 99% of the passengers didn’t have a Russian passport or visa so couldn’t leave and spent the night sleeping on the floor in a kind of holding room.
I have done this at certain French airports by accident, but it would not be possible at any of them today.
In September I was approaching Calais when i realized I have forgot home my passport .
Luckily I always have my ID in the wallet so no problem the next day with UK police .
But I think the next time I’ll have to be more careful
… Except in Wal-Mart. I tend not to carry my passport when out locally in the US since there’s too muck risk of dropping it from a shirt pocket. (I was once tapped on the shoulder by a stranger who’d picked up my passport from the sidewalk).
Anyway, when buying beer in Wal-Mart (in Oregon) you must have government issued ID. Aha!, I think, producing my US pilot’s certificate. But, no, that’s not on the list. In increasing desperation I run through UK drivers licence, AOPA ID, etc., etc. while they run through a huge loose leaf scrapbook of acceptable ID’s. None matched, although I noted that a Guatemalan railcard would do. So no dice, the Guinness had to come out of my shopping. “Don’t worry” the supervisor confided, “See that gas station? Go there, you can get anything”. Even Guinness.
I… umm… might have done this recently. Luckily the handling company is a long way from the terminal, and I had my passport details saved in onlinegar.
The issue with photos on pilot certificates and the like is that it typically sets in motion a system of periodic renewal, which then opens the door to officially recorded flight reviews, recorded rating expiration and other costly and burdensome ‘licensing’ bureaucracy. The current FAA concept is more like a certificate of accomplishment, hence the US name.
The one that the bureaucrats did sneak into being in the US was reregistering our planes every few years. Although no government proposal has yet to be proposed for tracking and recording annual inspections, as done prior to about 1956 then abolished, that is now one logistical step closer to being reestablished.
Silvaire wrote:
resulting from resistance to adding a photo to the (Federal) pilot certificate and the baggage
I guess young age photo will cause you more problems that they will solve
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for gliding/paragliding sports or DGAC for ULMs give you a “pilot licence with photo”, and they will stick the most ugliest picture you can have. For NAA FCLs, are there countries who issue ICAO PPLs with photo? (US did long time ago)
Ibra wrote:
For US-nationals, given that in the US there is no national ID card or even a federal driving licence, I guess only passports will work for FAA related stuff….
For ID related to use of an FAA pilot certificate, as per the regulation quoted in the thread, a US state driver’s license is acceptable. This was a political compromise resulting from resistance to adding a photo to the (Federal) pilot certificate and the baggage (e.g. renewals, with potentially increasing scope) that comes along with that concept.
I cannot remember ever removing my pilot certificate from my wallet.
I’ve been asked for a passport in the us by the freelance instructor with whom I flew and by a large school. They both said they need it for regulations and had to take a copy (/picture) in case someone asked them. I’m not sure they actually looked at my licence.
But “here” too (Europe) I’ve occasionally not been asked for anything. I flew a DA40 from the UK to Portugal the other day and the people in charge of the move just gave me the keys without looking at docs or any sort of checkout.
There is some training you can do in the US that doesn’t require TSA clearance (and I don’t think requires a visa either), glider rating and seaplane add-on.
As for BFRs in the US, no one has ever asked to look at my pilots certificate – although I do tend to do my BFR where I used to live (last couple of times, at Houston Southwest at Texas Taildraggers. Some day I’ll pluck up the courage to do my BFR in the Stearman…)
