Senate and House have Approved Third-Class Medical Reform

On Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 1:31:03 PM UTC-4, wrote:
wrote:
On Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 9:24:56 AM UTC-4, Vaughn Simon wrote:
On 7/20/2016 8:44 PM, wrote:
There is no data showing having all GA pilots take a 3rd class medical
has accomplished anything.

That's the real take-away point. After doing this for (what? a half
century?) there is no data that shows that the third class physical does
anything to reduce accidents. At the same time, we have parallel
populations of pilots, glider pilots in particular, that have long
operated perfectly well without any requirement for physicals.

People who got turned down due to medical reasons, and then later
dropped dead at the grocery store, aren't statistically charted
by someone who follows their lives and makes an FAA report after
the fact. Same for mentally unstable. If they commit suicide, no
one calls the FAA about a non-pilot. In flight medical emergencies
being a small percentage anyway, would appear to be a non-issue
among a smaller population of flyers. Should that population
significantly increase, and should there be no oversight, then
logically it will become an issue.

I watched a guy in his 40's drop dead while sipping a cup of coffee
the day after an extensive physical; a physical in general is no
guarantee of much of anything, and particularly a 3rd class physical.

Then maybe under the new rules there should be a few *specific*
tests relevant to piloting. The first one being a "plaque test",
and then a focus on possible hypertension.

There never has been any test of mental stability for civilian pilots.

Well, not directly. But if their history of prior diagnosis by another
doctor gave indications or prognoses of such, then it may be an
insurmountable hurdle. And might should be.

A lot of peiple are missing the point that you do still need to take
a physical, just not one with the FAA paperwork burden in front of an AME.

To tell you the truth, I'd rather go before an AME than a non-pilot
GP who's lack of familiarity with the experience would cause them to
flag non-issues off the "top of their head".

---

Mark



--
Jim Pennino