The FAA said
"no" and slammed the door on any further consideration. It won't
budge on the medical "Catch-22" issue or extending the driver's
license medical to pilots exercising recreational pilot privileges.
Last June
AOPA petitioned the agency for changes to allow more pilots back in the air.
"But we won't
give up, particularly because we think the FAA's position is logically
inconsistent," said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of
government affairs. "Too many healthy pilots have lost their medicals, yet
they could still fly simple aircraft like Cessna 172s safely. We're going to
find a way to make that happen."
AOPA
has petitioned the FAA multiple times to extend the "driver's license
medical" to recreational pilots. That would allow pilots to fly a
fixed-gear, four-seat aircraft with up to 180 horsepower in day-VFR conditions
without a medical certificate.
When AOPA has made
this request in the past, the FAA has said there wasn't enough data to show
that the change could be made safely. This time the FAA's answer was to simply
close the door. "The FAA has not found cause...to reconsider the
third-class medical certificate standard for the exercise of recreational pilot
privileges," the agency said.
"But we will
keep knocking on this door," said Cebula. AOPA will conduct yet another
detailed analysis of the data records, looking specifically at the two years of
data from sport pilots flying without medical certificates.
"We'll hit
them again with the evidence," said Cebula. "The FAA recognized that
it could be done safely for sport pilots. Sooner or later, we will convince them
to extend the logic to other pilot certificates," Cebula said.
AOPA had also
suggested a common-sense way to fix the Catch-22 for sport pilots. Every pilot
exercising those privileges in light sport aircraft don't need a medical
certificate, just a current driver's license. Everyone, that is, except a pilot
who has previously been denied a medical certificate by the FAA. They can't
fly, even though someone else who has the same medical condition — but hasn't
ever applied for a medical certificate — is legal to fly as long as they are
healthy enough to drive.
AOPA said that an
AOPA member should be allowed to obtain a health statement from his personal
physician declaring that he is healthy enough to operate a moving vehicle and
is not likely to suffer any kind of incapacitation within the next 24 months.
But the FAA said
that might "place licensed physicians in the position of unwittingly
declaring someone fit for flight." The agency said the idea was "too
difficult to implement."
"We won't give
up on this issue either," said Cebula.
October
26, 2006