Posts moved from here
Peter wrote:
BTW I don’t think this new medical is any good for any FAA licensed pilot flying outside the USA, because it is a sub-ICAO medical.It’s the same as the LAPL, or the UK NPPL.
It doesn’t affect me, but why would that be? LAPL and UK NPPL are types of sub-ICAO licenses, whereas an FAA 3rd Class medical or the new equivalent grants you the privileges of an FAA PPL, not some lower / local / sub-ICAO license. Shouldn’t make any difference.
AOPA says:
Can I fly internationally (namely to Mexico or Canada) under BasicMed?
According to the rule (based on the legislation Congress created), flights under BasicMed “must be geographically limited to operations within the United States” unless pilots receive authorization from the country in which they will be flying. AOPA recommends calling its Pilot Information Center (800/USA-AOPA) or the country’s aviation authority to see what is needed to fly in that country.
I thought I’d add an update to this thread for anybody who might be interested in how the US-only Basic Med option is working in the real world, after May 1st implementation. A Mooney-flying friend’s Class 3 FAA medical expires this month and he decided to try the new option. First he asked his own doctor and was refused, as expected. Having anticipated that, he called a strip mall occupational medicine/emergency care place that does truck driver (DOT) physicals along with the rest. They didn’t agree immediately but called him back and said they’d do it. He’s now been there and done that.
It cost him $83, slightly less than I pay for a Class 3. His heath insurance would have paid it but he didn’t bother and paid cash. The exam according to him was more thorough than he gets from his AME for a Class 3, unsurprisingly much like a physical exam that you’d get from your real (non-AME) doctor, but without blood work. The Basic Med form at this link seems to ask exactly the same questions as a Class 3 medical application, and by implication you might assume the same pass/fail criteria as the Class 3 medical – although pass/fail criteria are not defined and are in actuality left within the “medical discretion” (authority) of the doctor. The differences we can see are (1) if one doctor won’t sign you off based on his “medical discretion”, you can keep trying with others until you find one who will (the Basic Med doctor does not report to FAA or anybody else that he declined to pass you) and (2) It invariably expires after four years versus either two or five years for the Class 3 Medical, or special issuance, depending on your age and issues. Also, the FAA will have no record of your answers unless they successfully request a copy from you or the doctor. Additional hassles are that you have to submit the doctors name etc to FAA for Basic Med and also take a short on-line aero medical training class every two years – which wouldn’t otherwise be required.
If you think you might fail a Class 3 with an AME or get into a long drawn out approval negotiation based on FAA pass/fail criteria, I can see that taking advantage of Item (1) above might be beneficial: assuming you answer truthfully you won’t avoid discussion of the same old application questions, but with pass/fail criteria being within the doctor’s discretion you could keep trying with different doctors until (hopefully) you find one that sees it your way. Otherwise if you plan on ‘non-issue’ answers to the application questions (either truthful or otherwise, which is generally unwise) it seems to me the FAA Class 3 procedure is less hassle. YMMV.
The FAA will put your BasicMed medical status on the public record at faa.gov, according to this
This is interesting. The FAA always knew your medical status because the AME logs onto their MedExpress website and types in all the stuff. But now any member of the public can check if a pilot has a valid medical.
Peter wrote:
But now any member of the public can check if a pilot has a valid medical.
No change there. I just looked up my father on line, saw that his last FAA 3rd class medical was in the 90s and what was required for vision at that time. Mine has my current medical date.
PS same result for a friend’s father who died at age 90 some years ago. His last medical was in 2002 and his current hard copy pilot certificate was issued in 2004. Pilots never suffer the indignity of dying, at least in the FAA database, they just continue flying under Sport Pilot forever… How civilized 
Bahamas now recognizes Basic Med. Canada and Mexico are being asked by AOPA to do the same, but not yet agreed to.
