On Sep 12, 1:06 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Jeff Dougherty writes:
Eh? All I had to do to get in to flight school was show up with a
check in my hand.

Getting in is just the beginning.

Believe me, I know. After all, I didn't finish. :-) And I did go to
college, where getting in wasn't even the beginning of the work I had
to do.

The third class medical doesn't do much more than make sure you
won't have a heart attack or seizure at 5,000 feet ...

The medicals are excessively restrictive--reminiscent of military
requirements--and archaic, disqualifying some conditions that are generally
harmless while accepting others that can often be dangerous. They are also
unnecessarily repetitive.

We could argue about whether or not certain conditions should be
automatically disqualifying for quite some time. I have a few pet
peeves there myself. However, according to statistics at
http://aviationmedicine.com/articles...e&articleID=19,
only 1.5% of those seeking medical certificates in 1998 (the last year
they had available) were denied one, and that included applicants who
didn't fill out the forms completely or include the appropriate
documentation. When you take those away, there were about 800 denials
out of about 450,000 applications. It doesn't sound like getting a
medical is all that restrictive.

And has been pointed out, if you don't think you can get one, fly as a
sport pilot. It's what I'll probably do.

Red tape is abundant in certification as well, with special procedures just
for having retractable gear, excessive currency requirements, heavy
regulation, and so on.

I'm afraid that I can't really say much to these unless you're more
specific. As far as I know, once you have the PPL you can fly any
single engine landplane without retractable gear or a variable pitch
prop. There are enough gear-up landings each year that some
retractable-gear training certainly seems to be a good idea, and I
don't think anyone would argue that seaplanes and multiengine
airplanes shouldn't have their own training requirements.

Currency requirements? The only requirement for a VFR private pilot
is a checkride once every two years, requiring you to pay for a couple
hours of an instructor's time. It's every six months for IFR, but
only if you haven't logged a certain amount of instrument time. How
could those requirements be profitably reduced without compromising
safety? (Sure, it's more often if you're an ATP, but that doesn't
really apply to recreational GA)

As for "heavy regulation"...well, any amount of regulation can be
claimed to be heavy. Unless you're more specific about which regs you
consider unnecessarily burdensome, I can't really offer
counterpoints.

It's easier to become a lawyer than it is to become a pilot, and in some
respects it's easier to become a doctor as well.

Er. As a current applicant for medical school, I've gone through a
year of premed coursework (after finishing a bio major at a liberal
arts college), followed by a yearlong application process that
involves a lot of paperwork and some not inconsiderable fees to get me
the chance to fly at my own expense somewhere for an interview, after
which the school might or might not admit me. I've definitely spent
more than 90 hours on the application process, and my total bill
probably won't come out to be much less than a PPL once I'm done
interviewing all over creation. (With the amount of flying I need to
do soon, I'll have my multiengine pax rating in no time! ;~) ) It's
taken two years on top of the four I spent in college, a lot of money
and skull sweat...

....and that's just to get *into* medical school. When/if I start,
I'll then do four years worth of intensive coursework, followed by at
least three years of residency pulling 80-100 hour weeks. Followed by
a licensing process that will look at my health at least as closely as
an FAA medical.

(And oh yeah, I'll be paying for it all too, at about $40K a year.
Debt, here I come!)

The above is not a complaint by any means. I can't wait to get in and
start my journey towards being a physician, and I knew what the rules
of the game were when I started the process. But in consideration of
the above, I would be interested to know what part of becoming a
doctor you consider easier than becoming a private pilot.

-JTD