One of the general
aviation community’s most talked-about issues—pilot medical
certification—will again be a prime topic during forum sessions at EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh. The pilot community will have several opportunities
to learn more about EAA’s efforts to streamline medical certification
and FAA progress on those issues.
Dr. Warren Silberman,
head of FAA’s Aeromedical Office in Oklahoma City, will present a
forum on the subject at 8:30 a.m. Friday, July 28, at Forum Pavilion #8
(Jet Aviation Pavilion). In addition, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey
will surely address the topic during her annual "Meet The
Administrator" session at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26, at
Forum Pavilion #7 (Honda Pavilion).
Medical certification for
pilots has been a priority topic for EAA for more than 20 years, ever
since it was the first general aviation organization to propose
self-certification for some categories of pilot certificates in 1985,
including recreational pilot. Then and now, EAA strongly believes that
self-certification would meet the demands of the recreational flying
community, while overwhelming evidence shows the move would have no
affect on aviation safety. EAA’s decade-long effort to make sport
pilot a reality was focused on pilots being able to certify their
fitness for flight, just as glider and balloon pilots have always done,
and as millions of car and truck drivers do.
"The history of this
subject shows that EAA has consistently been the innovator and leader on
the medical certification issues, from self-certification to clearing
the special issuance backlog," said Earl Lawrence, EAA vice
president of industry and regulatory affairs. "In addition, EAA
AirVenture provides a forum for a public review of how the system is
working."
A 1993 petition to FAA
for medical self-certification was the genesis of the medical rules
eventually included as a major part of today’s sport pilot rule. At
that time, EAA noted that self-certification had been a part of the
ultralight regulations since 1982, and there had not been a single
medical incapacitation accident that caused injury to persons or
property in the decade that followed.
Although petitions by EAA
and other groups requesting recreational pilot self-certification have
been denied, EAA’s efforts that made it possible in the sport pilot
rule now give the aviation community an opportunity to accurately
measure what, if any, affect medical self-certification has on accident
rates. EAA maintains the evidence will show no difference between
accident rates of pilots self-certified and those who regularly renew
their third-class medical certificates.
Although
self-certification is now part of the sport pilot regulations, EAA’s
work is not finished. A particular Catch-22 in the rule prevents those
who have been denied a medical certification from operating as sport
pilots unless they first receive a special issuance from FAA. This
prevents many now-medically fit pilots from flying as sport pilots
unless they go through a laborious process to receive a special
issuance. This system not only keeps fit pilots grounded, but also adds
to the backlog of special issuance cases before FAA’s Aeromedical
Branch.
EAA has also advanced
practical solutions to the backlog, created by the EAA Aeromedical
Council, a group of aviation medical examiners who volunteer their time
to assist on medical issues. These proposals have generated action from
FAA that is beginning to reduce the backlog and allow more flexibility
in the process.
In addition, two
physicians who have served on EAA’s Aeromedical Council—Dr. Richard
Jennings, president of the Aerospace Medical Association, and Dr. Jack
Hastings, AsMA president-elect—have joined EAA President Tom Poberezny
for meetings with the Federal Air Surgeon and his FAA supervisors. EAA
will continue to work closely with FAA on medical certification issues,
and monitor the agency’s progress toward timely and reasonable medical
certification for aviators.
