Student's medical has restriction "Student priv only".

I've got a primary student who is just about blind in one eye. He
passed his medical, but with a restriction for Student privilages
only. He was told that he would need to have an FAA person ride with
him to prove he can see other traffic, identify airports, land, etc.
At that time, the "student priv only" restriction would be removed &
he can take the checkride & have an unrestricted medical.

Is this a SODA? He acted like it wasn't. I've never dealt with this
before, so I want to have all our ducks in a row well before his
checkride, which may be a month or so away. He said the FAA told him
that this person could even come along on the checkride, but I think
he'll be nervous enough with that.

On Oct 4, 12:32 pm, "JGalban via AviationKB.com" <u32749@uwe> wrote:
> cra...@ameritech.net wrote:
>
> >Is this a SODA? He acted like it wasn't. I've never dealt with this
> >before, so I want to have all our ducks in a row well before his
> >checkride, which may be a month or so away. He said the FAA told him
> >that this person could even come along on the checkride, but I think
> >he'll be nervous enough with that.
>
> Yes, it's a SODA ride to remove the medical restriction. I know a few one-
> eyed pilots and they've all taken the same ride. Just schedule it with the
> FSDO whenever it's convenient.


That's what it sounded like to me too. I assume this is a one-time
ride and not generally required to be recurrent?

-Robert, CFII

On Oct 4, 2:53 pm, "Robert M. Gary" <N70...@> wrote:
> On Oct 4, 12:32 pm, "JGalban via AviationKB.com" <u32749@uwe> wrote:
>
> > cra...@ameritech.net wrote:
>
> > >Is this a SODA? He acted like it wasn't. I've never dealt with this
> > >before, so I want to have all our ducks in a row well before his
> > >checkride, which may be a month or so away. He said the FAA told him
> > >that this person could even come along on the checkride, but I think
> > >he'll be nervous enough with that.
>
> > Yes, it's a SODA ride to remove the medical restriction. I know a few one-
> > eyed pilots and they've all taken the same ride. Just schedule it with the
> > FSDO whenever it's convenient.
>
> That's what it sounded like to me too. I assume this is a one-time
> ride and not generally required to be recurrent?
>
> -Robert, CFII

Since he's only a student pilot, if he wants to do the SODA ride
*before* the checkride, won't I have to be in the right seat "giving"
him dual? Or is the SODA examiner fall into the same loophole as a
checkride DE?