AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2014 - 4

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

Medical made easy?

MARK BAKER
AOPA President and CEO

Fighting for legislation that makes sense, and against rules that don't

AOPA PRESIDENT

Mark Baker bought
his first airplane-a
1968 Cessna 150-
while he was still
in college.

4 | AOPA PILOT February 2014

I'VE BEEN FLYING for a long time, and for most of those
years the aviation medical requirements have been just
a fact of life. I love to fly, so I jump through the hoops
of getting the medical, then put it out of my mind until
the next one is due. That doesn't mean I don't think
about my health. I never climb into the cockpit without determining that I am well enough, rested enough,
and focused enough to fly safely.
After years of taking a backseat, medical requirements have moved to the forefront of just about every
conversation I have with pilots. From the FAA's new
sleep apnea policy to the AOPA-EAA third class medical petition, to the General Aviation Pilot Protection Act
(GAPPA), medical issues are front and center for the GA
community right now. Some of the developments are
great, others are inscrutable, but they all have the potential to change the way we fly, and AOPA's team of experts
is right in the thick of things-instigating changes that
are good for GA and fighting those that aren't.
Let's start with the AOPA-EAA petition. Nearly two
years ago, we asked the FAA to make more pilots eligible to fly under the driver's license medical standard.
The changes we proposed were pretty modest, but they
would have allowed many pilots who didn't want to take
the third class medical route to stay in the airplanes they
own or fly regularly, instead of forcing them to move
into the Light Sport category. Our petition also would
require recurrent training in how to self-assess your fitness to fly. The goal is to improve safety by giving pilots
greater awareness and better tools to decide whether or
not to launch. More than 16,000 comments were filed
on our petition, and they were overwhelmingly favorable, but the FAA didn't act. One of the very first things
I did as president of AOPA was to meet with the FAA
administrator to try to move this forward. We offered
to help in any way we could, but still the FAA didn't act.
So we talked to friends in Congress, and they did
take action. On December 11, 2013, Rep. Todd Rokita
(R-Ind.), a member of the House General Aviation
Caucus, and GA Caucus Co-Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.)
introduced GAPPA. Their legislation goes a step beyond
our petition. It would allow pilots to use the driver's
license medical standard for noncommercial VFR
flights in aircraft weighing up to 6,000 pounds with
no more than six seats. That includes virtually all single-engine airplanes with six or fewer seats, including
Beech Bonanzas, as well as many light twins such as the

Piper Aztec, Beech Baron 55 and 58, and Cessna 310.
Pilots would be allowed to carry up to five passengers,
fly at altitudes below 14,000 feet msl, and fly no faster
than 250 knots. This legislation is great news for pilots
and we'll be asking for your help to give the bill the support it deserves.
Now here's the incomprehensible part. While
Congress, AOPA, and other aviation groups have been
actively seeking ways to make flying easier and more
affordable, the FAA has been striking out on its own
by introducing a policy that would make it harder and
more expensive for thousands of pilots to get a medical.
In November, out of the blue, the FAA Federal Air
Surgeon introduced a new policy that would require
pilots with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater to
be tested for sleep apnea and have their results assessed
by a board-certified sleep specialist. Over time, the goal
is to move that target BMI to 30-affecting some 120,000
pilots. These tests will be required even if the pilot has
no symptoms of a sleep disorder.
This, I have a problem with. First, the FAA has acted
unilaterally, without public input and without going
through the rulemaking process. Second, there's absolutely no reason for making thousands of pilots spend
hundreds of dollars taking expensive, intrusive tests.
Both the FAA and the NTSB admit that in a decade
there has not been a single fatal GA accident attributed
to sleep apnea. Not one. When we raise this issue with
the FAA, it says that sleep apnea is a problem in other
modes of transportation so it must be a problem in aviation as well-not exactly what I'd call scientific evidence.
We're fighting this one tooth and nail, and we've got
lots of support. Incidentally, the truck driving industry
tried to do something similar and a law was passed forcing them to use the rulemaking process. Our friends in
Congress have introduced similar legislation to protect
pilots, and even the organization that represents aviation medical examiners has objected to this new policy.
All of us at AOPA know how important it is to
protect your freedom to fly. We'll keep fighting for
legislation that makes sense and against rules that
don't. And we'll ask for your help, too. This is a time
when we can make a real difference for the future
of flying, and we're determined to make sure the
changes are good ones.
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2014

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