Medical first flights of the Cessna 170A/210 and other junk

[n3833v]

The Senate has passed the FAA Re authorization bill that has our medical and other goodies included. One step closer. Check AOPA site for info.

John

[DaveF]

Looks great, Jim. Congratulations on getting into the air!

[Metal Master]

I just got my 3rd class medical Special issuance for Diabetes sent to me By the FAA in the mail last night October 25th 2016. It did not lapse at all this time around. It was due to expire on the 31st of October. It is only good until April 30th 2017 "6 months again. Which means if I want to fly next summer I have to do one more Special issuance before July and Third class medical reform kicks in. Or Just forget it and not fly for 90 day decisions, decisions, decision? I think I will not worry about it for now! And just Fly.
Jim

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Jim, those of us with special issuance are all going to be doing the dance. In my case my special is for heart attack, coronary artery disease and then by-pass surgery. Risk denial of a 3rd class (or any class) or accept some flight restrictions is the dance.

In my case right now the answer is easy. I need a second class to work. If I can't work, I can't afford a plane or to fly one. I only hope that I decide to retire prior to losing my second class. I'm turning 60 in February but have no retirement date in mind. Right know age 68 sounds good so I have the reissue I'm currently requesting and 8 more after.

Couples enter the square
Bow to your partner, Bow to your corner.
Heads forward and back
Sides forward and back.
Circle left
Heads promenade 1/2
(All) swing your partner
Allemande left
Promenade

[bagarre]

I haven't been keeping up, when does the 3rd class medical reform supposed to kick in?

https://www.aopa.org/advocacy/pilots/me ... cal-reform

It was signed into law 15 July 2016.

The legislation gives the FAA 180 days to create and enact new regulations that conform to the legislation. Unfortunately, if the FAA does not issue these regulations within 180 days, there is no immediate consequence. However, under the new law, if the FAA does not issue regulations within one year from July 15, 2016, the date the President signed the bill into law, then the FAA cannot take enforcement action against a pilot for not holding a valid third class medical certificate so long as the pilot makes a good faith effort to comply with the legislation. Again, pilots cannot take advantage of the new third class medical reforms until the FAA promulgates these rules. In the meantime, pilots need to continue to comply with the current medical certification requirements in order to fly.

[Metal Master]

Couples enter the square
Bow to your partner, Bow to your corner.
Heads forward and back
Sides forward and back.
Circle left
Heads promenade 1/2
(All) swing your partner
Allemande left
Promenade

Bruce,
Double Swing your Corner, Giving it your all
Also swing your own, Be careful now don’t fall!
Give a Circle Left, to right hand star we call…
(dancers Cheer Hoot Etc.)
I only had to keep a 3rd Class medical to fly as a System Operator on the Boeing 757 Flying test bed. After I transferred to Boeing Test & Evaluation as an “Aircraft Modification Technical Specialists”. I mostly work as a liaison for third party issues for Test Support Aircraft operations. Do not know what that is or means. Boeing would have required me to have a second class medical to fly as an analyst in the back of the T-33 which the FAA would never let me do. So that was a disappointment. I have gotten to fly in the T-33 for other reasons not test related.

However I get to do fun things in this job, next month I travel to MESA AZ. AH64 program to work as an Interviewer on a FORA (Flight Operation Risk Assessment). Having been an A&P & IA for many years and a Helio mechanic in the Army 6 year and 4 years afterwards rebuilding Hughes 500’s for Cascade Airframe Repair kind of gives me some experience in this area. Before I left the Army Medical Retired with Diabetes we had the oldest AH1G in the Army inventory. (IYCHYAS)

But a third class medical allows me to fly my customers Carbon Cub a few weeks back. Working for myself as Jim’s Aviation Services gives me the expendable income to own and operate the airplanes I have owned. I support a large family of disabled Children Grandchildren a great granddaughter and all of their counterparts under my roof. Except for my son who works. 10 people if I include myself. I look forward to retirement, I am 63 years old and cannot work for myself and draw full social security until age 67. Having worked as an independent mechanic for most of my career has left me with virtually no pension. But who am I to complain I chose this life. Including enlisting in the Army during Viet Nam to be a Helio mechanic. And I get to play with Airplanes almost exclusively.
So 3rd Class medical WOO HOO!
Jim

[Metal Master]

I haven't been keeping up, when does the 3rd class medical reform supposed to kick in?

Essentially if the FAA does not get the job done after July 2017. Anyone who has not had a medical denied can certify by meeting the intent of the legislation that was outlined to the FAA. AOPA has a pretty good line on it. Attending the 3rd class Medical reform seminar at AOPA's Bremerton Fly-in this summer the speaker was very sure that the FAA would get this all done by July 2017 mostly because if they do not it will open a large can of worms. However it has to go to NPRM first and we are expecting to see that out by the end of this year.

[170C]

As they say, "The devil is in the details" or something like that I have read and listened, as most of you have, to lots of information on this new law. It would appear if we hold a third class special issuance, we might have to have that SI renewed one more time if the current one expires prior to July 2017 or prior to the FAA's getting things sorted out. In my case my SI expires March 30, 2017 so I anticipate I will have to see my AME one more time to be able to hopefully obtain a SI. Is this what you learned folks think is correct?

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Frank you could just let your current medical expire and not fly until the new law goes into effect, then fly under the new law as your 3rd class was never denied.

[170C]

True Bruce, but I don't want to be unable to fly (legally) from April - July. Guess its taking a chance to go back for a renewal of the special issuance. If things remain as they are now I feel reasonably comfortable going back to my AME once again (if I have to).

[Metal Master]

Over on the Cessna Pilots Society forums a person noted that he got from the seminar that you may be able to self certify after January 2017. That is not what I understood from the seminar I attended at the AOPA Fly-in in Bremerton Washington this summer. My medical expires in April so I wrote this: And why I am so in favor of 3rd class medical reform.
April 30th may be good enough.
At the seminar I went to during the Bremerton AOPA fly-in I had understood after July. That is all in the discussion and I am not going to “Submit" until March 1st anyway so I am sure it will be discovered by then. I do not want to submit if I do not have too. It is very wearying just waiting for the FAA and the results of your submissions. You never know what they will add on a whim or find reason for denial and then ask for more data.
Why I am very interested in 3rd Class medical reform.
The FAA generally has a statement in the “PI” letter that is sent with your 3rd class medical or authorization as in my PI letter. Something to the effect that, on or after March 1st submit all requested information listed under “For Subsequent Certification”. And then will have all of that listed under a paragraph titled For Subsequent Certification. That is what they did in the letter I received in April 2016. And for some unknown and unexplained reason they only gave me a 6 month medical good through October 31st. Only 6 Months.

The letter I received this month in August a first for me having the FAA send the letter approving my 3rd class a month before my medical expires. It makes it impossible to plan a flying vacation ahead of time during that period when I do not know what is going to happen. In the April 2016 letter they were asking for very little and it was clearly listed under the paragraph titled For Subsequent Certification. Four quarterly visits with my treating physician with notes from his examinations, four quarterly A1c blood values, a simple physical examination. And notes from the treating physician stating there is no significant eye disease. Note that it is impossible to have 4 quarterly visits with a doctor in six months. What this means is that the FAA already has two of the required visits they requested on file. But not including them with your submissions will create a denial. Two weeks before I finally received my 3rd class medical in the mail I was called by the local FAA medical branch and told I would receive a denial from Oklahoma because I had not submitted all of the required examinations. Which I had submitted and I knew it because I have been through this Rodeo before. I keep a PDF file of all of my submissions on my laptop.

I went over the submissions page by page with the analyst. Who confirmed that I had submitted all that was requested except that there was no documentation of my CPAP visits with the Sleep doctor? Which I explained that as that was not an item requested under the heading of Subsequent Certification. That further all that was previously requested and was included in the previous submissions which concluded with the authorization letter in April of 2016 and that my next visit with the Sleep doctor (a completely useless visit I might add)is not until February 2017. She put notes in my records to this affect. I was subsequently called by another analyst and told my application had been approved but had not been signed by the doctor. This culminated by my receiving my 3rd class medical in the mail last week.

The new PI letter I received has no paragraph titled Subsequent Certification although there is a paragraph that suggests that there is. Instead there is a rambling paragraph describing all that I am required to do while performing as pilot in command with insertions of what I am required to submit. In order to disseminate what I have to submit the paragraph has to be studied and broken down into two categories.

Performance and submissions and listed so that it makes sense. The FAA cannot understand all of these themselves when they review the file which will be 6 months down the road and be being reviewed by a different analyst. Which is why I work through an AME who understands all of this junk and with the local FAA medical branch which expedites and smooths the onerous application process. The two analysts who called me were from the local branch. I would not have been called and given the opportunity to clear this up had it not been for their having called. The Analysts in Oklahoma will not call you they will just send a denial. And as in this example had they sent a denial I would have been requested to send in more CPAP results which were not required and not listed in subsequent certification and told that I had not sent in enough quarterly visits which I had. My AME told me and the FAA has warned me to never send in information they have not requested as it causes further examination and delays by the FAA then requesting more information.

I now have four separate doctors’ visits I have to make each year that often create additional visits with more specialists and doctors when the FAA requests further information and even more doctors’ visits that are often created when a visit is made because the office is not ready or prepared to provide the services required on the day of the visit. Even if you have made it clear upon making the appointment what would be required.

This is why I am so anxiously awaiting 3rd class medical reform. But who am I to complain when I was first diagnosed with Diabetes in 1975. I had to have my Driver’s license approved by my doctor every year. God help you if he checks the wrong box on the form you could get arrested. Ask me how I know. There was no opportunity for any diabetic to fly and life expectancy was 15 years after diagnoses. Now 41 years later I have an unrestricted driver’s license a 3rd class medical and own the funnest airplane to fly I could imagine the Cessna 170A 210 HP “Get it Done” machine. It has been worth it for me to go through the Dance however I am SOOO looking forward to 3rd class medical reform.
I could write a small novel on what I have been through since my first application for a medical in 1997. Which at the first cut took 6 months to get the FAA on the same page with there own requirments.
Jim