AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014 - 16

WAYPOINTS

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Last day to fly

Is the FAA on a witch hunt?
TODAY THERE'S A PILOT flying his Piper Super Cub low
over a farm field, enjoying the view. The upper door
is open, his arm in the breeze. The smell of freshly cut
hay drifts into the cockpit. As the mighty Cub slides
over a fencerow, the next vista unfolds for the pilot
who knows the fields, the country roads, the individual houses as well as the rooms in his own home. A
neighbor in his driveway looks up and waves, the Cub
a familiar sight.
What the pilot doesn't know is that this is his last
day of flying. For tomorrow he goes in for his third class
medical exam. But this time the doc for the first time
ever will be required to measure his body mass index
and record it on the form that gets sent to the FAA.
BMI is a ratio of height to weight. While frequently
cited as a means of determining who is overweight and
obese, the measure itself is controversial as a health

Dairy cows in a nearby pasture might be frightened
should he drift too low over a field because of his
"cognitive impairment."

EDITOR
IN CHIEF

Tom Haines
has been a pilot
for more than
30 years.

16 | AOPA PILOT January 2014

tool. In addition, the aviation medical examiner will
measure our pilot's neck; if he finds it is more than
17 inches and he has a BMI of 40, the doc must defer
(or withhold) the pilot's medical certificate until he
can be evaluated by "a physician who is a board certified sleep specialist." If the pilot is determined to have
obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), he may no longer fly his
Super Cub from his farm strip in Iowa (see "Member
News and Notes: Suspend Sleep Apnea Policy, AOPA
Insists," page 100).
According to Federal Air Surgeon Fred Tilton,
M.D., the danger of our pilot falling asleep during his
weekly 45-minute flight over farm country or making
a poor in-flight decision because of interrupted sleep
is just too great a risk. A cornfield could be damaged.
Dairy cows in a nearby pasture might be frightened
should he drift too low over a field because of his "cognitive impairment." Milk production could suffer. This
FAA mandate comes despite no reports by said cows
of such incidents.
The testing by that sleep specialist will require
multiple trips to the city and thousands of dollars of
investment for our pilot. If diagnosed with OSA, our
pilot will need to spend hundreds of dollars more on

gear to allow him to sleep more restfully, and he will
have to go through an FAA special issuance process
in order to regain his ability to fly his Super Cub over
the countryside. Forever more he will have to show
annually that he is complying with the requirements
of the special issuance and diligently using his sleepaid gear, a machine with a recording device that will
rat him out if he doesn't use it regularly.
The agency's move to require screenings for all
pilots is the result of a 2009 recommendation from the
NTSB that cites a single incident of a regional airline
crew falling asleep and overflying a Hawaiian island
before waking and safely landing as intended. The
captain had undiagnosed OSA. The sleepy first officer
was simply a victim of regional airline scheduling. The
NTSB concludes "that efforts to identify and treat the
disorder in commercial pilots could improve the safety
of the traveling public," although it's unable to cite any
accidents related to OSA. The NTSB report is focused
on commercial pilots, but the final board recommendations encompass screening and treatment for all pilots.
In addition, Tilton plans to continue ratcheting
down the BMI number "until we have identified and
assured treatment for every airman with OSA." Sounds
like a witch hunt. But most disturbing is that the FAA is
using policy to set regulation-with no opportunity for
comment, no safety data to make its case. What's next?
People with freckles must be screened for skin cancer by a dermatologist before they can get a medical?
AOPA's Medical and Government Affairs staffs are
calling for a stop to the policy's implementation. At
press time, AOPA was supporting a group of legislators
in the House GA Caucus who introduced legislation
to require the FAA to go through rulemaking before
making the policy change. No one is advocating that
pilots should fly with OSA, but how about education
and regulatory process rather than policy edict? The
new mandate will cost thousands of dollars each for
tens of thousands of pilots and overwhelm the FAA
with new cases-and to what end, given no data to back
it up? Will we really see the accident rate decline? Or
will we see pilots like the one described above simply
call it a day-the last day for flying?
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014