AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2015 - 4

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

Call me an optimist

BY MARK BAKER
AOPA President and CEO

Getting third class medical reform done
IT MAY BE CLICHÉ, but spring is the time for optimism.
The sun shines more, plants begin to grow, the ice
melts, and in many parts of the country we pull out
our airplanes and exercise our flying muscles for the
first time in months.
So it seems appropriate, this spring, to talk about
just how optimistic I am about getting third class medical reform. And I do believe we can get this done.
Third class medical reform is, hands down,
AOPA's top legislative priority for 2015. And we've
got the support of a significant and growing group of
legislators. Many of our most strident legislative supporters on this issue are pilots, and AOPA members,
themselves. But they are increasingly being joined
by lawmakers who can see that general aviation mat-

Fortunately, there's more than one path to change in
Washington, and we're lucky to have the support of
so many influential members of Congress.

AOPA PRESIDENT

Mark Baker
represents the
more than 350,000
AOPA members on
issues in Congress.

4 | AOPA PILOT April 2015

ters-as an economic engine, a job creator, a means
of transportation, and much more-and that it needs
a boost to grow and thrive.
Toward the end of February, general aviation's supporters in Congress did something remarkable. They
simultaneously introduced four pieces of legislation-
two in the House and two in the Senate-that would
allow thousands more pilots to fly without needing to
get a third class medical (see "Pilot Briefing," page 27).
The fact that so many lawmakers from both parties and in both houses of Congress were able to work
together to make this happen is definitely cause for
optimism.
In big bureaucracies, change comes slowly-if at
all-and maintaining the status quo is almost always
the path of least resistance. Medical examinations have
been part of the pilot certification process since the
Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce
issued its first pilot's license on April 6, 1927-probably, at least in part, because civilian licensing of pilots
grew out of practices established by the military during World War I. Since that's the way it's always been,
that's the way it has continued, even if it no longer
makes much sense.
Medical care has changed a lot in the past 90 years
or so. With the rise of routine and preventative health

care and insurance to help pay for it, most of us monitor and manage our health as a matter of course.
Visiting an aviation medical examiner every two or five
years for a cursory exam is an added expense and hassle, and it has very little impact on our overall health
and well-being.
The idea that pilots who fly recreationally don't
need these occasional exams to fly safely is not a new
one. In fact, it's one the FAA embraced more than a
decade ago when it created the sport pilot rules. In the
years since then, thousands of pilots have successfully
and safely flown as sport pilot.
The FAA has even embraced expanding the idea,
as evidenced by the agency's Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM) to reform the third class medical. But, as I said, bureaucracies move slowly, and the
FAA's NPRM became bogged down at the Department
of Transportation, where it waited for months to
undergo a mandatory review.
Fortunately, there's more than one path to change
in Washington, and we're lucky to have the support of
so many influential members of Congress. Earlier legislation won the support of 180 bipartisan lawmakers
before it expired at the end of the last Congress.
This time, we hope to win even more support for
the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 (PBR2), which would not
only let thousands more pilots fly without spending
time and money at the AME, it would also offer other
protections to help support and stimulate GA activity,
including protecting pilots from liability when they're
flying for charitable causes, updating the notam system,
and ensuring that pilots who face enforcement actions
have access to critical information about their cases.
I'm optimistic, but not naïve. The introduction of
this legislation is a great step forward. But it is just
the first step. If you received a "call to action" message
from AOPA, I hope you responded by getting in touch
with your senators and representative to ask for their
support of PBR2. If you haven't done so yet, please consider taking action now.
When we show legislators that we're actively
engaged-not only as an organization, but as a community made up of individual pilots and voters-we
get results. So let's put our optimism to work and get
the job done.
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2015
