"not be unsafe"? What is not unsafe about piloting a plane without a
license? Would you say that an 18-wheeler truck driver is safe, even if he
has never held a CDL? The public purpose is to stop any old yahoo from
grabbing the keys to their friends plane and launching off. I cannot
understand your post, it's as if you don't think and unlicensed person
should face any penalty for knowingly endangering himself, others and
property, all with no insurance.
Your example is a diversion. If the student pilot were such a hotshot, he
would have completed the written and the checkride and become legal. He
would also understand the reasons why he needed to take the checkride, and
the penalties for not doing so. Sigh, I do hope you are not a pilot or
aspiring pilot IRL, such an anti-authoritarian attitude is one of the 5
traits (look it up).... If you are, I hope you don't fly your Zenith
anywhere in TX.

Do you really believe that a truck driver should be able to drive an
18-wheeler without a CDL, and if
"TxSrv" wrote in message
. ..
Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
Criminal penalty for pilots operating in air transportation without an
airman's certificate

...if that individual-
(1) knowingly and willfully serves or attempts to serve in any capacity
as an airman operating an aircraft in air transportation without an
airman's certificate....

Perhaps why att'ys can charge good fees. "in air transportation" is
superfluous if the offense is merely "opearating." So, if solo and no
transport of cargo?

Who knows, but it seems Congress would [should] not intend to criminalize
something which may not be unsafe. And allow fed prosecutors to screw
people at their whim to no public purpose. For example, a real good
student stops the process short of the check ride and continues to fly.
With a fews yrs of meaningful exp, a good pilot, except for the idiot
part. Contrast to a very avg student who may even be an idiot in general,
and who passes the ride from an easier examiner, and subsequent exp is
neither frequent nor meaningful.

Fred F.