Trevor Jacob Goes Flying On Temporary Certificate

The FAA has confirmed that Trevor Jacob, the California pilot who intentionally crashed a Taylorcraft for a YouTube video two years ago, has been issued a temporary pilot certificate. "His pilot application is working its way through our standard process. He has a temporary pilot certificate. You can read more about temporary certificates here," the agency said in a statement. Temporary certificates are good for 120 days and are commonly issued after a student pilot passes a checkride and is waiting for a permanent certificate. In Jacob's case, his certificate was revoked in April of 2022 and he was eligible to apply to get it back a year later. In a video he posted last week he says he passed the written exam and did a checkride on June 17.

The video, entitled "I Got My Pilots (sic) License Back! But Going To Prison....," was posted a day after he was sentenced to six months in a federal prison for hiding the evidence of his stunt. The flying segment was apparently shot before his sentencing. The video appears to be about all the things he will miss when he's in jail and includes about two minutes of flight footage. It also features introspection about jumping out of the airworthy classic single festooned with video cameras and following it down to its demise in a desert valley northeast of Santa Barbara. There's no apology in there. He said the staged crash was on his "bucket list" since he was a child and that since the incident he has "become a man."