# Sign an endorsement

> Pick a template, fill in every blank, add your certificate number, and sign. The text is stored exactly as you signed it, and the endorsement belongs to the pilot rather than to a course.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/sign-an-endorsement
Section: Training and curriculum. For: Instructors, Admins.

On the pilot's Endorsements card click **Sign one**, pick a template, complete every blank in
the body, enter your certificate number, and click **Sign**. The text is stored exactly as
you signed it and is never regenerated.

**Who can do this:** Instructors, Admins

## Where you can sign one from

The Endorsements card is the same card in three places, so use whichever you are already on:

- `People → the pilot → Training` (web console)
- The **Overview** tab of a student's training record
- `My training → Endorsements` (web console), for your own

![Person detail, Training section](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/person-training-card.png)

An endorsement belongs to the **pilot**, not to a course. That is why it appears on people who
are on no syllabus at all: a rental checkout, a flight review, a tailwheel sign-off. Signing
one from inside a training record also attaches it to that enrollment.

> **Note:** Only an instructor or an administrator can sign. A dispatcher is shown the Sign one button on
> a person's page, but the signature will be refused. See
> [Who can see and do what in Training](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/who-can-do-what-in-training).

## Pick a template

Templates are grouped: Before solo, Solo, Cross-country, Knowledge & practical tests, and
Additional privileges & reviews. There is also **Something else**, which gives you a free
text box.

Choose one and the body arrives with the student's name already filled in.

![Sign an endorsement dialog](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/endorsements-card-sign.png)

## Fill in the braces

Anything the template leaves for you appears in braces, such as `{make}`, `{model}` or
`{airport}`. The dialog counts how many are left and tells you.

> **Careful:** The counter is a reminder, not a gate. The Sign button stays enabled with blanks still in the
> text, and the result is a signed endorsement that literally reads "proficient to make solo
> flights in the `{make}` `{model}`". Read the body once before you sign it.

## Sign it

Enter **Your certificate number**, then click **Sign**.

What gets stored: the text exactly as it stood, your name, the date, your certificate number,
and an expiry date if the template carries one. The 90 day solo endorsement under §61.87(n)
and (p) carries one; a flight review sign-off does not.

The text is never regenerated. AC 61-65K will be revised eventually, and what you signed must
not change underneath you.

Once signed it appears on the pilot's page, on the student's own My training tab, and, if it
has an expiry, in the [Endorsement expirations
report](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/endorsements-about-to-expire) and the nightly digest.

## Renew an endorsement

Renewing is always a fresh signature, never a changed date.

1. **Click Renew on the row**

   Only endorsements that carry an expiry offer it.

2. **Check the body**

   The template that was signed before is preselected and the text reloaded.

3. **Complete the blanks and your certificate number, then Sign**

   A new endorsement is created that replaces the old one, with its own fresh expiry.

The old endorsement disappears from the card, from the expirations report and from the digest.
It still exists on the record, it is simply no longer the current one. An endorsement that has
already been replaced cannot be renewed a second time.

## What is not in the template list

The built-in templates are the AC 61-65K Appendix A endorsements a flight school signs most,
each labelled with its paragraph number in the AC: the practical-test prerequisites (A.1 and A.2),
the student pilot endorsements (A.3 to A.12), the knowledge and practical test endorsements for
private, commercial, instrument and flight instructor (A.36 to A.47), the flight review and
instrument proficiency check (A.69, A.71), complex, high-performance and tailwheel (A.72, A.73,
A.75), and retesting after a failure (A.77). Sport, recreational, glider, balloon and type rating
endorsements are not among them.

For anything outside the list, choose **Something else** and write the endorsement yourself.
It is stored, signed, dated and shown on the pilot's page exactly like the rest.