Sports pilot medical standards

[marathonrunner]

I thought I would post this for informational purposes only. I know of someone who had a loss of consciousness which was brief but could not be medically explained. This person was taken to a hospital emergency room and the attending doctor was an AME. The AME told the person that he would have to report this to the regional flight surgeon.

This was on a Saturday Labor Day weekend. The person went straight to a privatized post office which was open. The individual wrote a note to the regional flight surgeon explaining they no longer wished to excercise the priveldges of their medical and sent it via return receipt registered mail to the flight surgeon.

Tuesday morning the flight surgeon received the letter and called this persons AME who also did not know what was going on. This person told the AME the circumstances and explained that since it was volunteerly surrendered it was not denied or revoked and if nothing was found and it was a one time incident they could self certify for flying as a sport pilot. If they had made a mistake and it could be explained then they could get the medical back.

I am not advocating flying with a known medical condition. If you have a problem that might require extensive testing or maybe it becomes a judgement call from the board that meets in Oklahoma City or, you just do not want to get a medical for your recreational flights, then you do need to keep in mind that you cannot fly under the sports pilot regs if your medical has been denied or revoked.

If however you think you may have a problem but are not sure and do not want to have your medical revoked just surrender it. You are still ok to fly as a sport pilot. If you later find the problem was nothing and want a medical then reapply for it. People all the time have conditions that come and go and it is troublesome that the FAA makes it such a burden for some one time or little thing like blood pressure or a cardiogram that is different than normal. Not necessarily bad but, falls out of their sometimes ancient paramaters.

Another thing to remember is to maybe go in to your AME and before doing the medical examination have a consultation to see if they think you may have a problem getting your medical or, you may need additional tests or it has to be reviewed by Oklahoma City.

Remember during the 60's, if you had a heart bypass you were grounded. If you did not you could continue flying. Many people that should have had bypasses did not get them. What a Catch 22...Yosarian still lives