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General Aviation News

NTSB report highlights hazards of cataracts for pilots

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Transportation Safety Board, in a Safety Recommendation Report issued recently, urged the FAA and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association to educate pilots and aviation medical examiners about the hazards cataracts pose to flight safety.

The report contains three NTSB safety recommendations for the development and dissemination of educational information for pilots and aviation medical examiners about the risks cataracts may pose, particularly at night. [Read more…]

Have you seen a doctor lately?

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By MIKE LUCAS

As I removed my shirt and sat up on the examination table, my Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) asked me: “Have you seen a doctor lately?”

The question was curious to me. I have been visiting an AME physician every year since 1985. That question was, it seemed, a trick question, I was sitting in a doctor’s office. After my examination, I received my second class medical certificate that day.

The interesting point about this exchange with my AME that August is that 10 months later, the next June, I was on an operating table, scheduled for a quadruple bypass surgery. [Read more…]

Fit to fly

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By TOM DOUGLAS

Seventeen minutes without a heartbeat set Jim Poling off in a new and life-fulfilling direction.

“They say you can only survive 19 minutes with a shut-down heart, so it was a close call,” Jim related recently. “Even so, a stroke suffered on the operating table left me blind in one eye.”

The Canadian author had been living on borrowed time for more than 40 years – since the day when, as a 15-year-old, he’d been diagnosed with a congenital heart problem.

“It’s called aortic stenosis — a narrowing and stiffening of a main valve that controls blood flow from the heart,” he said. “I was told nothing could be done. Open-heart surgery was unheard of then. I’d have to learn to accept the situation.”

This medical finding was a double blow. Not only would Jim be living with a biological time bomb in his chest, his dreams of becoming a bush pilot like the legendary Wop May and Al Cheesman had just crashed-landed. [Read more…]

New recommendations for mental health fitness for pilots

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The FAA has released recommendations from an aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) tasked with providing input on how to assess and improve pilots mental fitness for duty.

The ARC was empaneled last year in the aftermath of the Malaysia Air 370 and GermanWings 9525 tragedies. In both cases, a depressed member of the flight crew is believed to have potentially used the aircraft to commit suicide. [Read more…]

Medical reform amendment added to Highway Bill

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Two GA advocates have filed an amendment to the Senate highway bill now under consideration that includes third-class medical reform.

The amendment, which was filed by Senators Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and John Boozman (R-Arkansas), mirrors language in the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 (PBR2). Both senators are longtime general aviation advocates and Manchin is also a pilot and AOPA member. [Read more…]

Keep pushing for medical reform

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As of the start of this year’s SUN ’n FUN, more than 21,000 letters to Congress in support of the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 have been sent from EAA’s Rally Congress network by Experimental Aircraft Association members and other aviators.

That legislation includes the aeromedical reform language that is easily the No. 1 regulatory issue for pilots, according to EAA officials. [Read more…]

Third-class medical reform caught in government maze

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — It started two-and-a-half years ago and there is still no clear end in sight. It’s another example of apparent government slow — or no — action.

In March 2012, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) petitioned the FAA to reduce the requirements for a third-class medical certificate and permit certain types of flying with a valid automobile drivers’ license, much like the Sport Pilot license.

[Read more…]

Charles Spence

Charles Spence is GAN’s Washington, D.C., correspondent.

Old Coot pilots come up with ideas for a new medical

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Guest Editorial By John Christensen

I recently attended my 50th high school reunion. I had a wonderful time reminiscing with classmates. As one would expect, the rather large crowd quickly organized itself into small groups, according to interests, past and present. I found myself embedded in a pod of old coot pilots.

After the hangar stories, lies and exaggerations were dutifully processed, the conversation topic switched to the Class 3 medical and our collective assortment of various health issues keeping us grounded. Many colleagues are aircraft owners and pilots. Tickets ran the gambit from ATP to private. All had one common interest: To somehow legally get back into the air, as seniors.

[Read more…]

More than 16,000 comments on medical exemption request

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End of public comment period moves measure to next stage

A late flurry of public comments to the joint EAA/AOPA third-class medical exemption request pushed the total number of comments to more than 16,000, one of the largest totals for any public comment period involving GA activities, according to Experimental Aircraft Association officials.

[Read more…]

Janice Wood

Janice Wood is editor of General Aviation News.