FWIW, I believe that student pilots are forbidden from the Class B airspace. I am not sure if that would include the VFR exclusions - it's been a while since I was a student pilot.
The restriction on students in the Class B is understandable given the communication requirements. I can just imagine a 25 hour post-solo student trying to negotiate a Bravo clearance w/ a NY controller.
But a post-solo student has demonstated (atleast a few times) the ability to t/o and land - significantly more taxing of the skills than missing skyscrapers.
Somebody over on airliners.net linked this page:
http://www4.passur.com/lga.html
It's a site that shows you the airspace around Laguardia Airport. Use the controls at the top of the page to go back to 14:40 and start it moving. You'll see a plane chugging northeast up the East River; if you click on it to select it it'll show as "General Aviation", no identification, altitude 600 or 700 feet. About 14:41:25, after it crosses what I assume to be the 59th Street Bridge, at 700 feet altitude, it hangs a VERY abrupt left turn until it's heading west, and stops moving about 14:41:40 at 600 feet. I can only assume that was Corey Lidle's plane. It's flying along like normal up the East River, and then turns sharply left back into Manhattan and probably hits the building about 20 seconds later.
}:-)4
Agreed...never argued that point...I can't imagine a CFI signing off on a student on solo to transverse or fly in class B....
Lidel was a full private pilot....