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Good argument for removing the 3rd class medical

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:10 am
by Mark Gregor
http://macsblog.com/

Hope this works as Im pushing my limited computer skills here.

Jake

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:00 am
by N918KT
Interesting article! I don't understand why Craig Fuller of AOPA didn't do something about helping eliminating 3rd class medicals? AOPA should definitely do something about it!!!

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:59 am
by Jim Stewart
I'd guess that the AOPA would be conflicted on the issue.

One of their highly touted benefits is helping you get and keep your medical.

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:33 pm
by N918KT
I guess everyone is too afraid to do it. Frankly I'm even afraid to ask the FAA or AOPA to eliminate the 3rd class medical. I'm guessing that if I ask someone to change the FAA medical law, I might get in trouble or something bad to me may happen. I guess most pilots are afraid that they will open themselves to "slings and arrows". It's like the Miranda rights (you have the right to remain silent). When the police arrest someone they tell them that they have the right to remain silent and anything that they say will be held against the suspect. That's why many pilots are too afraid like me to say anything about the 3rd class medical.

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:55 pm
by zaitcev
You already are an SP, what have you got to lose?

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:22 pm
by zdc
Obama has just announced that all Federal agencies are to review their regs and get rid of the ones that don't make sense. Since the FAA now has statistics for a non medical pilot population [SP] it could easily justify dropping the 3rd class for pilots of small non commercial acft. It would also be a money saver for the FAA. We'll see what happens.

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:24 pm
by N918KT
How long would the regulation review take, if the FAA might plan to eliminate 3rd class medical rules?

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:47 pm
by pilotgary111
Get rid of the Sport Pilot Catch-22 and free up many grounded pilots who would love to FLY again just for FUN!

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:03 pm
by N918KT
Good point Gary. I wonder if eliminating 3rd class rules also eliminates the SP catch 22. I hope it would!!!!

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:01 am
by KSCessnaDriver
See, the other thing people haven't considered with eliminating the medical, is the potential issues it could cause with ICAO. The FAA has been moving more and more towards using the basic ICAO standards on everything (Position & Hold vs Line Up & Wait). I'm nearly 99% sure that if we have private pilot certificates without medicals, they are not going to be recognized by ICAO. Then who knows what happens from there.

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:32 am
by Jim Stewart
The ICAO thing could be handled like the radio license. Just carry a valid medical cert when you leave the country.

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:33 pm
by N918KT
KSCessnaDriver, I see your point. You maybe right on that part that a medical is required to fly out of the U.S. I don't know about this but my belief is that if it changed that PPLs don't need to have 3rd class medicals but a U.S. driver's license, maybe the only country outside the U.S. they can go without a 3rd class is to the Bahamas, because the Bahamas already accepts Sport Pilots with a driver's license medical.

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:28 pm
by KSCessnaDriver
Jim Stewart wrote:The ICAO thing could be handled like the radio license. Just carry a valid medical cert when you leave the country.
I know that is entirely possible, I'm just saying with the recent FAA movings to ICAO standards, I don't see them doing something so fundamentally against ICAO standards.

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:27 pm
by drseti
Moving this thread to the new "Medical Issues" forum.