In his latest blog, EAA’s Mac McClellan states that the petition by EAA and AOPA to allow required medical education to replace the third-class medical for recreational flying is the first proposal that can not only improve safety, but more importantly, be approved by the FAA. Read his full blog post here.
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Janice Wood is editor of General Aviation News.
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So a doctor with severe heart disease can be licensed to fly only to die as he pulls back on the stick?
That is going too far. Only ultralights should require simple medical like driving a car because of their lightweight and flying them should require a vehicle drivers license.
Passing a normal physical should be required annually and the proof kept on the pilot for LSA’s. Everyone over forty should have an annual physical, even those who don’t fly. Flight physicals with ever increasing requirements should be required as aircraft weight and license complexity goes up.
Oh come on now – talk about taking it to extremes!Â
The question isn’t whether or not your worst case scenario could happen, it’s about improving general safety. If we implement a system that could technically allow a heart-disease ridden doctor to fly with heart palpitations but that also empowers normal, conscientious pilots to improve their safety sufficiently, would the overall safety improve?
There’s reason to believe this might be so. For example, it’s been found that raising the speed limit closer to the average speed found on certain freeways improves safety because the difference in speeds between the careful drivers and the speedy drivers was reduced, and the overall death toll dropped.Â
Let’s temper our judgement with actual information and facts, not extremist edge possibilities!Â