Saw this elsewhere, and I agree we should end the FAA medical and shift it over to be like basic med

“
A snippet from another site, not that anyone in the industry didn’t know evidence based medicine and FAA based “medicine” are two very different animals


“ By the way everyone ever involved in HIMS should read the congressionally mandated study just out by Senator Jeanne Shaheen's office in NH.
It is not out in print yet but an advanced copy is available here: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/c...- ... fety-first
read the entire study carefully and you might be enlightened to just how far FAA and HIMS don't want any outside reviews of their practices.
The recommendations from the committee align current medical standards and not that of the FAA unpublished internal policies.
Check out.
Appendix C
Communications between the Committee and the FAA, HIMS,
ALPA, and Congressional Staff
as an example of the programs stonewalling techniques.
Also the incredibly low response from pilots to comment on the efficacy of HIMS was best addressed by their statement on page 5-12
"the committee never received indications that HIMS and
its administering organization, Air Line Pilots Association–International (ALPA), ever
distributed the link or sought pilot participation. …"


FAA who is unelected isn’t following our elected officials simple requests for data











Add on the FAA doesn’t follow modern evidence based medicine



Yes that was all HIMS, however there are just as many horror stories tons of other issues in aero med


Sprinkle on this report showing, in the FAAs own damn study, that using your own doc with basic and a checklist vs OKC and a AME doesn’t even make a difference in “safety”



https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files ... 202118.pdf


Think there is so much data that there is no arguing it’s high time the FAA gets out of the medical business, which they probably never really had any business in in the first place

Might be worth a call to one’s elected officials

“

That seems to be common place these days, with Federal agencies outright ignoring Congress.

There is another issue in the airport world that we have been fighting, a new TSA requirement. In the recent DHS/TSA Reauthorization bill Congress "asked" TSA to delay implementation of a new policy that would have a huge impact on many commercial airports, but all indications are that TSA is not bound to do so and is not willing to do so.

The bureaucracy will never allow them to become obsolete. The stonewalling is transparent. Too many bureaucrats will become irrelevant. Thus, you have to protect the mother ship and uncle sugars allowances at all costs.

Silly tax payer. They know what you need, not you.

to be fair...it's not hard to get a third class medical. Walk in the doctor's door under your own power, see and hear well enough to have driven yourself there, not be on the verge of dropping dead from diabetes or heart condition, and pay the doctor's fee.
Way easier than Basic Med.

And let's be honest. Basic Med was designed to be even less stringent than the easy-peasy Third Class medical in order to allow border-line unhealthy pilots to keep flying and pumping money into aviation, lest they hang up their wings and buy RV's.

No no no

You think the FAA medical has much to do with health? It actually encourages pilots to NOT seek medical attention and they dont even follow modern evidence based medicine

Tell me you don’t have much experience as a working pilot without telling me you don’t have much experience as a working pilot

Unless and until you have one of a number of conditions which may or may not actually affect your ability to fly, and then you can go down the rabbit hole.

Or better yet, even if you don’t even have any condition and they think you do, you have to prove you don’t have it, proving a negative is something most civilized systems condemn

A few gems I’ve heard over the years

Ex wife says pilot has disqualifying back pain, pilot has no history of admissions or medications, still had to jump through hoop$ to prove its BS

Woman left a bar to get into a cab, was attacked sexually assaulted on the way to the cab by a stranger, “alcohol abuse”

Or Delta pilot Karlene Petitt, with over 40yrs experience and no history of mental issues, Delta gets the FAA medical system to falsely claim she’s “bipolar” after she blows the whistle on fatigue issues at the company, grounding the career pilot for TWO YEARS

https://www.aviationpros.com/airlines/n ... ower-pilot


The FAA also has a history of weaponizing the medical, if a pilot angers the FAA but doesn’t break a far, not even enough for the unconstitutionally vague 91.13, the FAA has been known to go after their medical instead.

Bob Hoover, highly accomplished pilot, lots of time in the public eye, and very vocal about some nonsense in the FAA, had his medical pulled for no good reason

https://www.leftseat.com/pilot-medical- ... ob-hoover/

Pretty easy at 23 when I got first medical. Doctor literally patted me on the back twice. Said, " you look healthy. That'll be 40 dollars. " I think they took my vital signs. I was in perfect shape physically. It gets harder with age and If your honest with the AME and have some medical issues - it is problematic. Basic Medical is great but was still a compromise. Basic med is showing the foolishness of the Third class medical in terms of safety. The only thing the third class medical does is create a barrier for older pilots. There are too many disqualifying conditions and medications for the 3rd class medical. Which then leads to pilots needing special issuance medcals which are costly and sometimes impossible to obtain. I don't have anything major right now but hard to know what the future will be. Basic Medical is much easier to obtain. As long as you have willing PCP.

Pretty easy at 23 when I got first medical. Doctor literally patted me on the back twice. Said, " you look healthy. That'll be 40 dollars. " I think they took my vital signs. I was in perfect shape physically. It gets harder with age and If your honest with the AME and have some medical issues - it is problematic. Basic Medical is great but was still a compromise. Basic med is showing the foolishness of the Third class medical in terms of safety. The only thing the third class medical does is create a barrier for older pilots. There are too many disqualifying conditions and medications for the 3rd class medical. Which then leads to pilots needing special issuance medcals which are costly and sometimes impossible to obtain. I don't have anything major right now but hard to know what the future will be. Basic Medical is much easier to obtain. As long as you have willing PCP.

No no no

You think the FAA medical has much to do with health? It actually encourages pilots to NOT seek medical attention and they dont even follow modern evidence based medicine

Tell me you don’t have much experience as a working pilot without telling me you don’t have much experience as a working pilot

Not permanent, but costly in time & money to rectify.

Paul

Not permanent, but costly in time & money to rectify.

Paul

We have long let significant swaths of our government, especially the agencies, to get away with the narrative that they are "public servants" here only to serve us and to protect "[insert whomever/whatever here in need of protection]."

The justification for administrative agencies is that they are populated with subject matter experts and that they "know better."

In my experience and with in the FAA, that is increasingly untrue.

(As but one example, a 25+ year FAA counsel in a proceeding objected to a question I asked to an FAA witness about a flap configuration of a particular aircraft. Her objection was that she did not know what a "flap" was and therefore did not understand my question). There's your expertise, folks.

Still, many folks there more than doubled their earnings when they jumped on board and could not make in the public sector what they make at the FAA.

Public servants? I don't think so. They serve themselves. It's a good gig - good salary, benefits, days off, blah blah blah. That is repeated across all of the agencies many, many, times over. It is a cancer on the body politic.

Who do you think populates AeroMed - the best and brightest medical minds? Or perhaps busy people doing busy things being busy?

I have always joked with my office that the FAA should simply buy a giant scarlet macaw and put it in the lobby of FAA headquarters.

Ask is the question "why did the FAA [insert whatever here]," it would always squawk the same words "air safety."

When you delve into what safety issue the agency is trying to address, the bird gets real quiet.

And if I could go a step further, I am seeing an increasing amount of pride and joy within, among others, the FAA when they ruin their fellow citizen's lives or ruin their dreams all justified, of course, on the vague altar of "air safety."

Empirical evidence? Nah.

Grotesque does not begin to describe it.

If thats true ether you were very sheltered, or should buy a lotto ticket