FAA petition to eliminate Class 3 medical for Private Pilots

A petition to the FAA to eliminate the 3rd Class medical for GA flying.

http://www.potomac-airfield.com/dot_petition.htm

--
If you look at anything long enough, say just that wall in front of
you -- it will come out of that wall.
- Anton Chekhov

On 10-29-2010 22:23, Bug Dout wrote:

A petition to the FAA to eliminate the 3rd Class medical for GA flying.

http://www.potomac-airfield.com/dot_petition.htm


Again? This comes up every year (or even more often). I believe the
FAA basically says we already have it (Sport Pilot) and has denied it in
the past.

Scott wrote:
On 10-29-2010 22:23, Bug Dout wrote:

A petition to the FAA to eliminate the 3rd Class medical for GA flying.

http://www.potomac-airfield.com/dot_petition.htm


Again? This comes up every year (or even more often). I believe the
FAA basically says we already have it (Sport Pilot) and has denied it in
the past.

Does this really come up every year?

On 10-29-2010 23:59, Jim Logajan wrote:
wrote:
On 10-29-2010 22:23, Bug Dout wrote:

A petition to the FAA to eliminate the 3rd Class medical for GA flying.

http://www.potomac-airfield.com/dot_petition.htm


Again? This comes up every year (or even more often). I believe the
FAA basically says we already have it (Sport Pilot) and has denied it in
the past.

Does this really come up every year?

On various aviation groups or aviaiton websites, etc., yes. Not
necessarily just this one.

On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:22:18 +0000, Scott
wrote:


Again? This comes up every year (or even more often). I believe the
FAA basically says we already have it (Sport Pilot) and has denied it in
the past.

I have to say I don't disagree with the logic in the proposal.
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Re...ontentType=pdf

"FAA's medical exemption is currently exclusive to LSA aircraft,
artificially creating an unfair, unnecessary and exclusive market
concession for a few LSA manufacturers. FAA medical standards are
literally being exploited by industry to force thousands of older
pilots to stop using their certified aircraft; so they must either buy
a new LSA or quit flying,"

I think that is essentially true.

If it's safe enough for a pilot to fly a new $150,000 LSA with no
medical, why isn't it safe for the same pilot to fly a 25 or 30 year
old Cessna 172 or 182 or a 25 or 30 year old Piper Cherokee?

What do you think?

" wrote in message
...

If it's safe enough for a pilot to fly a new $150,000 LSA with no
medical, why isn't it safe for the same pilot to fly a 25 or 30 year
old Cessna 172 or 182 or a 25 or 30 year old Piper Cherokee?

What do you think?

That's not the greatest argument. I think that there is a pretty big difference
between an LSA and a 172/182. There is much less difference between a 150/152
and an LSA.

That said, there is really no convincing evidence that a doctor can predict your
health over the next two years based on a written form and a quick external
physical exam. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. In short,
the 3rd class medical certificate has no provable safety value and is simply an
expensive "gift" to the medical profession at the expense of the aviation
community.

Vaughn

On 10-31-2010 12:19, vaughn wrote:


That said, there is really no convincing evidence that a doctor can predict your
health over the next two years based on a written form and a quick external
physical exam. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. In short,
the 3rd class medical certificate has no provable safety value and is simply an
expensive "gift" to the medical profession at the expense of the aviation
community.

Vaughn

However, a medical exam may catch a problem that may potentially become
"life threatening" or incapacitating that is unknown to the examinee.
That is exactly what happens when someone loses their medical...they go
in, unknowing that there is any problem and come out with a denied
medical. I do agree that there is no guarantee that one will remain
healthy in the time between exams. Like I was always told, "You're just
one medical away from an ultralight."

" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:22:18 +0000, Scott
wrote:


Again? This comes up every year (or even more often). I believe the
FAA basically says we already have it (Sport Pilot) and has denied it in
the past.

I have to say I don't disagree with the logic in the proposal.
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Re...ontentType=pdf

"FAA's medical exemption is currently exclusive to LSA aircraft,
artificially creating an unfair, unnecessary and exclusive market
concession for a few LSA manufacturers. FAA medical standards are
literally being exploited by industry to force thousands of older
pilots to stop using their certified aircraft; so they must either buy
a new LSA or quit flying,"

I think that is essentially true.

If it's safe enough for a pilot to fly a new $150,000 LSA with no
medical, why isn't it safe for the same pilot to fly a 25 or 30 year
old Cessna 172 or 182 or a 25 or 30 year old Piper Cherokee?

What do you think?

I think that you have it exactly right.

Further, I remain displeased that they (FAA) adopted a rule which clearly
favored foreign manufacturers.

writes:

"FAA's medical exemption is currently exclusive to LSA aircraft,
artificially creating an unfair, unnecessary and exclusive market
concession for a few LSA manufacturers. FAA medical standards are
literally being exploited by industry to force thousands of older
pilots to stop using their certified aircraft; so they must either buy
a new LSA or quit flying,"

I think that is essentially true.

Not necessarily. A pilot who has failed a medical cannot fly LSA. An older
pilot would have to anticipate failing his next medical and then let the
medical lapse rather than take it in order to use the LSA route, and even then
it would be technically illegal (you can't fly LSA if you know that you would
not be medically qualified for a PPL).

If it's safe enough for a pilot to fly a new $150,000 LSA with no
medical, why isn't it safe for the same pilot to fly a 25 or 30 year
old Cessna 172 or 182 or a 25 or 30 year old Piper Cherokee?

What do you think?

I think all the medical standards imposed by aviation authorities are too
stringent. Medical incapacitation is extraordinarily rare. And before you say
that this is so because the exams are strict, look at the world of
automobiles: Even though most jurisdictions only require you to be able to see
reasonably well in order to get a driver's license, medical incapacitation of
automobile drivers is still extremely rare.

Most people never become suddenly incapacitated for medical reasons. They get
gradually sick and have to get medical care, but it doesn't sneak up on them.
In cases of things like heart attack, they are statistically very unlikely to
have a heart attack during flight, simply because almost none of their time is
spent flying.

Given how dramatically other sources of accidents outnumber medical
incapacitation, the draconian standards of aviation authorities don't make
much sense. You might want to be strict for airline pilots, but that's all.
And even for airline pilots, you don't necessarily need to be any more strict
than you are for people operating other vehicles where incapacitation would be
dangerous (commuter trains, ships, trucks, etc.).

Scott writes:

However, a medical exam may catch a problem that may potentially become
"life threatening" or incapacitating that is unknown to the examinee.

Yes, but it will miss such problems as often as it catches them.

For example, many people who suffer from sudden cardiovascular accidents have
no prior history of cardiovascular trouble that would have shown up on an
aviation medical exam. Indeed, some pilots who have had heart attacks showed
nothing wrong on their exams. Finding people who are truly prone to CVAs
requires expensive, time-consuming, highly invasive, unpleasant tests, and
even then it's not 100% reliable. Some people can live to 100 with clogged
arteries, others succumb abruptly to a thrombus with arteries that are
relatively clean.

A person who had a couple of seizures in childhood may be disqualified from
flying, but in fact there's a very good chance that he'll never have them
again if that was the last time they occurred. Here again, there's no way to
know.

That is exactly what happens when someone loses their medical...they go
in, unknowing that there is any problem and come out with a denied
medical. I do agree that there is no guarantee that one will remain
healthy in the time between exams. Like I was always told, "You're just
one medical away from an ultralight."

You can also pass a medical with flying colors and die of cardiac arrest on
your next flight. It has certainly happened, although medical incapacitation
in general is extremely rare.