This issue is a MAJOR personal pet peeve of mine. For years – decades, even – pilots have been clamoring for aeromedical reform for recreational pilots using the 3rd class medical process. AOPA, EAA and other groups have been pushing for same but nothing but hot air from the FAA appeared. Between the aeromedical people in OKC and the lawyers in DC plus maybe the senior FAA people, they had no vested interest in reform. It wasn’t until the perfect storm opportunity of FAA Reauthorization came in 2016 that an activist Senator Inhofe (R-OK) took it on and made it happen. For several years at Airventure, I listened to Michael Huerta ‘spew’ about medical reform being ‘in work’ but he couldn’t discuss it for reasons of ‘ex parte.’ What hogwash … aka known as 'oral gratification!
I took note of the fact that the required report to Congress by the FAA / NTSB on the impact of Basic Med covered the period from inception on May 1, 2017 to April 30, 2020 (Pub. L. 114-190), Section 2307 (h) of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of
2016 (FESSA) was a year overdue; their mandate was ‘NLT five years.’ So the FAA couldn’t even get THAT right despite assembling something they’re calling the BasicMed Reporting and Analysis Working Group (BRAWG), assembled in June 2018 with members
from the Flight Standards Service, the Office of Aerospace Medicine, and the Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention.
Anyways, that report is now available and I’d urge ALL pilots to spend some time reading the 32 page report at:
faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/PL_114-190_Sec_2307_Effects_Regulatory_Changes_to_Medical_Certification_Certain_Small_Aircraft_Pilots.pdf
There are some easily glossed over innocuous statements in there worth remembering. Among them … “the FAA is unable to revoke an airmen’s BasicMed registration because, unlike a Part 67 medical certificate, BasicMed is not a certificate and cannot be suspended or revoked.” Read that again!
And, from Dr Blank’s comments in the video, I learned that the cardiac committee only meets twice per year … this is NUTS !!! It’s no damn wonder the pilot community views the aeromedical community with enmity and fear. It’s too darned bad the aeromedical folks don’t apply this level of service to the very constituent population they serve. Dr. Northrup’s statements notwithstanding, they have a helluva long way to go IMHO.
Two last points: I summer not 100 miles east of where Dr Blank is. Right in this area, an AME was initially willing to do Basic Med exams until the first AME conference put on by the central region AME group in Des Plaines. THEY put the ‘liability fear of God’ into the attendees and suddenly, that AME would no longer do Basic Med. At Airventure, I confronted the Sr AME from the FAA about this; he tap danced around it. So MY takeaway is that if we pilots don’t USE Basic Med, THEY will try to find a way to kill it. So anyone who doesn’t need a class II or III physical should be flying under Basic Med unless the equipment they’re flying requires a higher class III physical OR they’re flying in a country that doesn’t recognize it. Basically … USE IT OR LOSE IT !!
BTW: Another great videography job, Paul.