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BasicMed - FAA Private Pilot Medical abolished - not useful outside the US (merged)

My impression was that Airborne Again’s episode was a while ago already and hasn’t recurred (?),

>10 years and no recurrence.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

You could argue that if Airborne Again had relied solely on the internet, he wouldn’t be flying now.

That seems to be a totally unsubstantiated claim, much like what Ioannidis accuses many of the medical studies of.

Fact is that the AME is the trusted medical examiner of the authority, not me (even though I pay him). So I’m only going to tell him the minimum I have to. So he doesn’t have any basis of doing a proper diagnosis.

Any GP is in a much better position.

LSZK, Switzerland

1.2% of pilot applicants that are now refused a medical, that with this new legislation would be able to fly

Refused at what average age?

Doesn’t say, but I’m actually surprised it is that low. The AOPA article makes it sound like there’s hundreds or thousands of people yearly exiting GA because of medical reasons.

Can anybody guess why the 14000ft altitude limit?

Oxygen level limit, which directly links into health (fitness)

Sports Pilot license is not permitted if you actually failed the standard medical.

Isn’t that a double standard? It’s like turning a blind eye. No, we DON’T want to know about your health issues, because if we do, we’ll ground you. You’re unsafe to fly, but no we do not want to know, you just do what you want to do. You’re saying the EASA assumes all pilot’s are lying, but this actually promotes lying (by omission).

Last Edited by Archie at 28 Feb 12:13

The AOPA article makes it sound like there’s hundreds or thousands of people yearly exiting GA because of medical reasons.

My very wild guess, based on pilots I know or have known personally, is that 50% of UK pilots who stop flying do so due to a loss of the medical, although admittedly that event often triggers a re-evaluation of whether they still really enjoy going Shoreham to Sandown for the 150th time…

Obviously the % who fail the initial medical will be much much lower and could well be just 2%. Those with enough brains to do the PPL exams will suss out if they have a chance of passing before the visit the AME, so no “fail” is recorded.

Isn’t that a double standard?

I think you could call it a political compromise

It is like the CV pass being valid for life BUT you are allowed to fail each of the available four (?) methods only once per lifetime (unless, and this is an internet rumour, you did it in a certain country not a million miles away from SE Europe where the AME would let you walk out of the door if you failed, and thousands of airline pilots did their initials down there). That’s complete rubbish as a rational policy, too. It smells of an airline trade union job. Not that I am complaining mind you… I have to do so many damn tests every year that one less is welcome.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

EGCW There are AMEs and then there are AMEs. Everyone gets the word who not to go to and even better who to go to.

I really question the whole medical exam making the skies safer. The exam only catches the most obvious cases especially if the airman is not forthcoming. As the pilot population ages we will see more and more debilitating conditions develop. Some are safety of flight issues but through modern medicine can be overcome.

In Airbornes case I was looking at it from what we might expect from Oklahoma when the information is sent to them. Of course since the episode occurrence was ancient the probability was much lower for a reoccurrence.

The fact is there is no predisposing signs and symptoms which one could use to identify a potential candidate for such an occurrence, with the exception of age, as noted in the article, being a large factor.

Overall, the prevalence of BPPV has been reported to range
from 10.7 to 64 per 100,000 population9,10 with a lifetime
prevalence of 2.4 percent.11 BPPV is also the most common
vestibular disorder across the lifespan,7,12,13 although the
age of onset is most commonly between the fifth and seventh
decades of life.4 Given the noteworthy prevalence of
BPPV, its health care and societal impacts are tremendous.

Taken from

http://www.aafp.org/dam/AAFP/documents/patient_care/clinical_recommendations/RecToBOD-020810-Attachment1BPPV-Jan2010Cluster.pdf

FAA Medical in Oklahoma plays it safe and paints with a broad brush. As an example the APNEA issue.

As I mentioned earlier tongue in cheek, the safest flight as far as pilot incapacitation is with 2 at the controls. But do I believe in that? Of course not.

KHTO, LHTL
Any GP is in a much better position.

Except that your GP probably doesn’t know a lot about flying and may well be alarmed at the prospect of signing their name to you taking your kids/grandkids for a spin. Signing the form is not part of their job description and is therefore discretionary – some may choose to do it for free. Some may charge lots. But some may refuse to do it at all, and you have no comeback other than changing your GP to a new GP – who unless you’re subtle will probably twig as to why you’ve changed (‘for some reason the last doctor didn’t want to sign the form you’re asking me to sign’).

At the end of the day, most of medicine depends on people being honest, whether it’s your GP or your AME. If you’re genuinely seeking medical advice then you’ll be honest, won’t you?

On the medical fora there are some interesting discussions about changes in fitness-to-parachute certificates – it seems that sufficient numbers of GPs were declining to sign them, that some of the companies doing charity parachute jumps have had to rewrite the forms. But they don’t seem to have solved the issue, and at least one of the medical insurance firms has advised doctors not to fill them out. The catch is that neither the parachute companies nor the doctors want to take responsibility for what is inherently a risky activity. The obvious person to shift the responsibility to is the parachutist, but for some reason we as a society seem unwilling/unable to do this.

https://healthunlocked.com/nhsengland/posts/130161484/what-to-do-when-gp-wont-provide-health-certificates-on-nhs-or-for-private-fee

“Want to do tandem skydive for charity, ironically for a childrens intensive care ward, but need GP to sign form 115 to say even though over 40 no unacceptable health risks. Understand would likely have to pay a fee but surgery refuses to do this either as a NHS or private patient as say their Doctors don’t do this. Form says has to be someone with access to my records…my GP surgery! What am I supposed to do now? Even CCG agrees it has to be GP but nobody can persuade them to do this…advice from surgery is to go online and find someone…like who, they need access to my history.”
(as an aside there’s evidence that charity skydives cost the NHS an order of magnitude more than they raise)

One doctor’s comment on the forum was “I did just say “no” to a chap on the basis that he was older than me, and I’d think I was daft to take it up now."

Another: “Anyway, a patient with osteoporosis and on Warfarin for a DVT (INR = 4) and with a haematological malignancy and splenomegaly will be able to self-certify with a clear conscience.” (the forms weren’t very well designed)

If you google GPs declining to sign NPPL declarations there are a fair number of parallel stories, both in the public domain and on private medical fora. e.g. this thread:
http://forums.bmaa.org/default.aspx?f=26&p=2&m=90274

I don’t know how common an issue it is. And if there is anything to declare the chances that your GP will need to discuss it with an AME anyway are fairly high.

So personally I’d rather see self-certification forms than depend on the whims of my GP. And for single-seater aircraft / flying with other pilots I think this is hard to argue against. For carrying non-pilot passengers I don’t have a firm opinion. The other interested party would be insurers/owners who are renting out, who at the high end will have an interest in the health of their pilots. But if I did have any medical questions I’d rather address them to an AME than my GP.

I’m not an AME so no personal interests to declare.

Last Edited by kwlf at 28 Feb 16:10

FWIW, IME, you cannot get a UK initial medical unless you consent to the CAA getting the whole file from your GP.

Whether they actually do it I don’t know. They probably do do it for the Class 1 because of high profile media reports of airline pilots who didn’t declare stuff…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

you cannot get a UK initial medical unless you consent to the CAA getting the whole file from your GP

What about those who have recently immigrated and don’t have a GP yet? Personally, I didn’t get one until after ~10 years in the Czech Republic – just never needed one.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

For my initial UK Class 2, I just wrote “N/A” on the GP address. Explained to the AME, and he was fine.

For the much later Class 1, I had registered with a local GP, but never used their services. I provided her address, and that was it.

Biggin Hill

If you’re genuinely seeking medical advice then you’ll be honest, won’t you?

But then I won’t go to the AME. The AME is not my trusted doctor, but the one of the agency. I go to the AME because the authority wants me to, and for no other reason.

Sure, if you ask the GP to sign forms then he’s in the same position essentially as the AME, and the system again doesn’t work anymore.

LSZK, Switzerland
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