Next a book which had a load of dots on each page which hides a number in a different colour;(test for colour blindness) again excellent 10/10.
That is pure extortion; probably illegal too. One thread here.
I was shocked to see an AME deciding this year, what tests he needs you to have prearranged for next year!
That is true for an audiogram (for an IR) and ECG in some cases. Some of these are every 2 years.
The only time I had an Audiogram done, my AME did it in their surgery during the class 2 exam.
I’ve had a few ECG’s now (not stress ones) and all have been done in the AME’s offices (three different AMEs at this point!). All did it in their own surgery without any prearrangement.
Peter wrote:
That is true for an audiogram (for an IR) and ECG in some cases. Some of these are every 2 years.
But that’s not the AME’s decision. It’s in the regs.
Nobody is arguing that. But if say an AME does not have the ECG machine and has to borrow it, he may make a note to borrow it (or not) for the next medical.
Also any angioplasty complicates everything dramatically, for the rest of your life. A good reason to eat veg 
The CV test seems to be a weird one.
I think some may have misunderstood. The audiogram is carried out by the AME during the medical. I have one every year.
The CV test has always been a book containing pages of coloured dots with the numbers standing out because they arebinz different colour. If you can’t see the number you are blind to that particular colour.
If I did not come with an ECG or if there is a big time difference between my AME medical and the last ECG with my cardiologist, the AME will do an ECG during the test.
You can throw the Part Med regs out of the window once you have had certain procedures or any other problem that necessitates a break in your flying. The DGAC pôle medical committee consider all of these cases on an individual basis. They then issue their findings in a set of acronyms eg VML means you have to carry a spare pair of glasses with exactly the same prescription as the ones you wear, although one pair can also be sunglasses with that prescription, SIR 12 months means surveillance every year and that is where you have to produce these extras eg blood test, doppler on the carotid artery (which incidentally has nothing to do with my original procedure and which the specialist cardiologist says is necessary every 2 years not more) and the doppler which does have something to do with my procedure (which my cardiologist does as a matter of course also required ,ECG, blood test SIC 36 months means further surveillance every 3 years and that is what the AME sees fit as adhering to this extra surveillance in my case he is demanding a scan for my next test.
The SIR SIC acronyms are also those for which an AME can demand an effort test for the next visit.
I understand that in some countries an AME will not issue a medical until that is done so you are stopped from flying until you have passed eg an effort test. At least here if nothing serious is showing up in normal tests you only have to get it in the following year.
These acronyms are written into your medical certificate so if you go to another AME s/he will see it and know that something needs checking.
After every AME medical all this information is sent off to the DGAC pôle medical and the doctor’s committee will study it during one of their meetings and decided whether some acronyms should be added or maybe some can be removed. I have never known this second to happen.
In my particular case the DGAC has made it a condition that I stay with the same AME for continuity sake. I could probably fight this condition but that might mean a whole lot of further tests or conditions such as flying with a safety pilot for a time.
As far as I can tell the LAPL would not help me. In France the LAPL medical has to be carried out by an AME. In my case, possibly the same AME as I have now. IMHO he would insist on the same tests or near enough as he insists on now, so no gain there.
IMO the aviation medical regime in France is great until you need surgery or some you have some other serious medical problem. After that ot becomes draconian.
Yes, I could switch to another medical regime in Europe..But I just can’t be bothered especially as none of this matters when flying a ULM.
Hope I have answered all the questions. Happy to answer any more you may have, and thanks for all the comments and suggestions.🙂🙂🙂
If you can’t see the number you are blind to that particular colour.
That’s not actually true. Isihara is not a CV test. It is a pattern recognition test, rigged to make you fail with certain combinations. Many people fail it, many almost totally, yet near all of them pass a lantern test, and can see all colours in normal life.
I understand that in some countries an AME will not issue a medical until that is done so you are stopped from flying until you have passed eg an effort test.
Post angioplasty (stent or bypass) you have an ECG treadmill every year, for ever. That is AFAIK ICAO, and the FAA doers the same. In fact under FAA you cannot regain a C1 or C2 unless you have a repeat angiogram!!
the DGAC has made it a condition that I stay with the same AME for continuity sake.
That’s just weird 
Yes, I could switch to another medical regime in Europe..
You would have to move your license to that country also
But I just can’t be bothered especially as none of this matters when flying a ULM.
You can fly a ULM in France with no medical at all, no? Much discussed here previously. But only in France.
“You can fly a ULM in France with no medical at all, no? Much discussed here previously. But only in France.”
That is correct, after an initial GPs note or in my case my current class2 I do not need another medical.
There are other countries which accept ULM without a Class2 medical. I know that Spain currently does not, but there is always negotiations going on with National and European associations.
I don’t think current regulations call for an effort test every year. Certainly in my case they do not.
This is one area in which my cardiologist gets her own way. “Only if needed”.
However, it does require no increase in my LDL cholesterol from one blood test to the next.
But this has not been something required by the AME.
As for the CV test I can only comment on how my current AME carries out the test.
It’s an easy enough test.
I would ask the knowlegeable on here if one can develop colour blindness over time or whether you are born with it?
gallois wrote:
But afterwards and on reflection I have decided that he has actually done me a favour.
So an AME bullies you out of renewing your Class 2 Medical and you call that a favour? I call that abuse of power.
I had an AME like this who almost bullied me out of flying some years ago and changed for another. Never looked back.
I believe renewing my Class 2 in the hope of being able to come back to fly my own airplane has done two things for me: First it forced some discipline into me to keep my fitness and weight in check and 2ndly it kept me in a certain controlled environment for some of the more dangerous health scares such as diabetes or cardiac problems, both of which are tested with an EKG. As we do not have any sort of regime which forces you to go for a normal check up to your GP every year, heaven knows what I would weigh by now without that motivation.
But sorry, what this guy did to you is pure abuse of power. And he’s basically reached his goal to have one GA pilot less. And he deprives you of many things you like to do.
It’s fine if you are happy to fly ULM’s but you have just joined the ranks of those who have given in to the agenda to exterminate GA in favor for those toys. And many of us who are in the focus of the medical profession are exempt from ever flying UL’s due to our weight.
It is simply infuriating to see how many of us can see “favours” when we are treated like garbage. The Stockholm Syndrome is really rampant within pilots.
gallois wrote:
As far as I can tell the LAPL would not help me. In France the LAPL medical has to be carried out by an AME
Yes, but LAPL medical is not the same as a “normal” medical. It’s a lot less strict, which is the whole point.
Anyway UL is cool. Relaxed, no fuss, just you and the aircraft
@Mooney_Driver my thread title was a little tongue in cheek although I was annoyed for a little while after I left the AME and during to put it bluntly. I do not allow myself to be bullied. Never have, never will.
As I mentioned I had already given up on my first love earlier in the year ie “flying twin engined aircraft” and as a consequence of that, also holding an IR. I couldn’t see myself using my SEIR much, if at all and I just got bored with most of the certified SEPs available to me.
I was offered a share in a beautiful and well equipped (avionics wise ) M20K. The 2 guys that own it keep the aircraft immaculate one has an IR the other is in the process of the CBIR. There is no doubt it is a super machine it just doesn’t do it for me.
I no longer need motivation to keep myself fit. I do it because I thought I was fit as did my AME and my GP, until a thorough set of tests recommended by my father’s doctor on discovering that he needed a stent. Nothing to do with an AME.
Since then I have been even more particular about diet and exercise than I was before.
But the knowledge I have gained has made me suspect that much of EASA Part Med, the DGAC Pôle Medical and AME’s are engaging in a “Cover your axse exercise”.
I do not have a thing about aviation medicals in particular. In fact I too thought they were a good motivational exercise. But when I started flying a visit to the AME was like a visit to your GP. He ran a few tests, all of which made sense if you were to fly. Blood pressure, fairly simple eye tests, balance check, occasionally pee in a jar and the AME would check the colour against the colour on his colour tube. Then he would sign.a piece of paper saying apt for however many years it was, based on your age.
No committees the AMEs were generally GPs who also worked in the sports world.
You trusted the doctor to know what he was doing.
Since JAR and EASA this has gradually grown into tick box exercises, regulations and committees all interfering in what is in fact a hobby.
Is there evidence that there are more accidents due to pilot incapacity than there was back then. I don’t think so. My AME certainly couldn’t answer that question.
IMHO if one aircraft crashes due to pilot incapacity leading to fatalities or serious injury to pilots and/or passengers, EASA the Pôles medical and AME’s can shrug their shoulders and say “nothing to do with us guv we did everything we could”
So I can’t be bothered to fight the AME especially as I have an alternative which I enjoy, at least for now. And its an alternative which motivates me to watch my weight.
