Why do pilots need a medical

Andrew Sarangan wrote:
The recent questions about medical certificate, paper trail, sport
pilot etc.. etc..got me thinking. What is the reasoning behind
requiring a medical for pilots? Why is a minor medical condition
disqualifying for flying a Cessna 172, when the same person can drive a
20,000 lb truck on public roads? Are there statistic to show that
medically unfit pilots are a greater danger to society compared to
other activities?


Well you know... There's a somewhat revealing discussion of the medical
requirement in the preamble to the Sport Pilot NPRM (it's somewhere on
faa.gov but my link to it no longer works, since it's pretty old). In
particular, among other things, it cites the safety record of sailplanes
as a justification for the so-called "drivers license medical" that was
initially put into the rule. It strongly suggests that the writers of
the rule felt that a medical requirement is a) superfluous, certainly
for flying LSA and b) in very high demand and critical for survival of
the LSA industry.

Of course, as we all know, the medical requirement was very badly
crippled in the final version of the rule, but that would appear to have
only been the result of pressure from special interests (the insurance
companies probably). What's important is, it actually succeeded in
passing without formally requiring a medical certificate - a stunning
achievement if you really think about it.

So clearly, there seems to be disagreement even within the FAA about
whether or not a medical requirement really does any good. The fact that
Sport Pilot even made it out the door in its current form strongly
indicates this.....

By the way, I think the preamble made a similar argument to yours - if a
pilot holds a valid DL and can drive a multi-ton vehicle down the road,
surely (s)he is fit enough to fly an LSA safely.....

My personal case is a good example. I can't obtain and maintain a class
III anymore and yet I'm in the best health of my entire life and more
than fit to fly an airplane. I've accumulated more then 500 hours of
flight time since my class III went away with no problems.. There're a
lot of other guys just like me out there also flying without problems....

So as they say, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....

LS
N646F