As of 10 days ago, an aviator with the following SI's can be issued a medical certificate WITHOUT LIMITATIONS for the following conditions, provided that specific worksheets are followed by the AME:


Arthritis
Asthma
Hepatitis C
Hypertension
Pre-diabetes
Migraine headaches
Chronic headaches
Renal cancer
Testicular cancer
Prostate cancer

The list, given above, shows the conditions for which a SI had been previously required. The new approach is to shift the burden from OKC to you and your AME. If you had a SI for one of the listed conditions, or if you have acquired one of these conditions since your last medical certificate, your AME can issue a regular medical certificate, without a SI, provided the AME follows a worksheet which lists a checklist.


More good news...later this year the same worksheet approach will be offered to pilots with the following conditions, eliminating their SI status:

Kidney stones
Carotid artery stenosis
Colitis
Irritable bowel syndrome
Colon cancer
Bladder cancer
Leukemia
Hodgkin’s Disease
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma


The FAA has modified the Guide for Medical Examiners and listed, under NavAids-Alterntive Navigation for the AME Guide, to include the worksheets which the AME can follow to issue a valid medical without SI. You will find it on the left side of the page for the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners.

The burden is shifted, to a certain extent, to the aviator with the condition which had required SI, as well as to the AME. You will have to be informed as to what will be required for the AME to issue, and this in turn will require a means with which you can access that information. That will likely be your AME. This will require more time from your AME or his/her staff. Keep in mind that the condition has not changed, but rather the burden has shifted from the FAA to the AME and the aviator. One of the questions that is now being asked, and which is driving many AME's out of the field, is who is now legally on the hook. I fear that this may further reduce the number of people who are willing to "serve at the pleasure of the Flight Surgeon General" with these new twists to SI, and what it does to the AME's liability.

More to follow...

mtv wrote:Actually, I think this is FAA Aeromedical's (weak) response to the AOPA/EAA petition to allow operations in Recreational Pilot category without a medical. I suspect the Aeromedical folks got told by the Administrator to respond whether he should or should not approve that petition and Aeromedical figures they can loosen their grip a little and that'll remove the heat from the organizations.

It may work, and if so, that's too bad. This may indeed make life a LITTLE easier for some folks. Bear in mind, this doesn't change ANY of the testing you're required to go through to get a SI. The ONLY thing this changes is that OK City now permits the AME to make the decision. THat's a good thing, but if you have a condition that requires $6000 in (uneccesary) testing every year.....you're still going to be going there.

But note that there is NO change in what is considered a SI....

MTV

mtv wrote:Actually, I think this is FAA Aeromedical's (weak) response to the AOPA/EAA petition to allow operations in Recreational Pilot category without a medical. I suspect the Aeromedical folks got told by the Administrator to respond whether he should or should not approve that petition and Aeromedical figures they can loosen their grip a little and that'll remove the heat from the organizations.

mtv wrote: Actually, I think this is FAA Aeromedical's (weak) response to the AOPA/EAA petition to allow operations in Recreational Pilot category without a medical. I suspect the Aeromedical folks got told by the Administrator to respond whether he should or should not approve that petition and Aeromedical figures they can loosen their grip a little and that'll remove the heat from the organizations. ..........

Papa Foxtrot wrote:

mtv wrote:Actually, I think this is FAA Aeromedical's (weak) response to the AOPA/EAA petition to allow operations in Recreational Pilot category without a medical. I suspect the Aeromedical folks got told by the Administrator to respond whether he should or should not approve that petition and Aeromedical figures they can loosen their grip a little and that'll remove the heat from the organizations.

I have it on pretty good authority that this is not the case. The AOPA petition(EAA just jumped on the bus) was DOA and AOPA knew it. It was purely a publicity stunt and my understanding is that the entire AOPA medical advisory board(including my source) resigned in protest. There was already an alternative on the table to use the DOT medical as an alternative to Class III - Australia just implemented that approach last year. FAA's medical branch was(off the record) on board with this alternative. AOPA ignored the advice of their own experts and plunged ahead into guaranteed defeat.