Narrative:

I am a very busy CFI. Also work multiple jobs; including another flying job. Had a young student solo on the morning of [date]. As I was doing his paperwork to sign him off for solo; I realized that neither I nor the other instructor he had flown with had submitted his 8710 for his student pilot license. Submitted the 8710 on the day he soloed; but this means he flew by himself without his student pilot license in hand. This was simply an oversight on my part. Apparently I thought I had already submitted his form; and quite clearly I did not.the problem arose because I did not submit my student's 8710 in a timely manner. Contributing factors were overwhelm and stress due to current pandemic situation and piled on top of that; weeks of unexpected overwhelm from a job. It was discovered when I asked him for his student pilot license; and he handed me his medical.the human factors all come down to me. I am usually quite adept at keeping up with all the piles of paperwork involved in being a CFI. This was an oversight on my part. Factors affecting the quality (or lack thereof) of my work were stress caused by the general discombobulation due to the pandemic; and overwhelm from one of my other jobs.my action was to file the 8710 immediately and to call the FAA help desk the next day for information on when the temporary certificate would show up. My student is terribly disappointed that he cannot solo till his paperwork come through. I apologized for my massive paperwork blunder.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Instructor reported a student flew solo without a student pilot license.

Narrative: I am a very busy CFI. Also work multiple jobs; including another flying job. Had a young student solo on the morning of [Date]. As I was doing his paperwork to sign him off for solo; I realized that neither I nor the other instructor he had flown with had submitted his 8710 for his student pilot license. Submitted the 8710 on the day he soloed; but this means he flew by himself without his student pilot license in hand. This was simply an oversight on my part. Apparently I thought I had already submitted his form; and quite clearly I did not.The problem arose because I did not submit my student's 8710 in a timely manner. Contributing factors were overwhelm and stress due to current pandemic situation and piled on top of that; weeks of unexpected overwhelm from a job. It was discovered when I asked him for his student pilot license; and he handed me his medical.The human factors all come down to me. I am usually quite adept at keeping up with all the piles of paperwork involved in being a CFI. This was an oversight on my part. Factors affecting the quality (or lack thereof) of my work were stress caused by the general discombobulation due to the pandemic; and overwhelm from one of my other jobs.My action was to file the 8710 immediately and to call the FAA help desk the next day for information on when the temporary certificate would show up. My student is terribly disappointed that he cannot solo till his paperwork come through. I apologized for my massive paperwork blunder.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.