Questions regarding medical fitness arise frequently. Many medical conditions or treatments can impact your ability or authority to pilot and aircraft. How a condition is reported, its timing, severity, and treatment can also make a big difference in obtaining or maintaining your authority to pilot an aircraft.
Many aspiring pilots have little familiarity with the intricacies of what previous or current diagnoses, conditions, treatments, or prescriptions may effect their ability to obtain an FAA medical certification. An airman who already has a pilot certification may develop a medical condition and wonder if that or a particular treatment or prescription will compromise his or her ability to retain their medical certificate. These are legitimate concerns and we can address them.
Consult appointments are available by calling the office.
The First Step
The first and most important step is to work with your medical provider to ensure that any medical issue is stable and controlled, and that you are aware of treatment or prescription options that will not impact your medical certification
It is always best to sort out any medical concerns prior to scheduling your medical. Even acute problems that will not be an issue after a short period of healing can prevent an applicant from obtaining their certification. For instance, if someone presents with their ankle in an immobilizer because of a sprain, they would not pass the medical due to this deficiency. This condition will be a non-issue in another few weeks but, in the meantime, represents a limiting condition that would prevent safe operation of an aircraft.
There are medical conditions that are disqualifying and many medications that are not permitted. You can get some general information from AOPA or leftseat.com, but what it comes down to is this: are you eligible for FAA medical certification?
To get answers to specific questions regarding your personal situation you can attend a consult appointment where we will discuss the specifics of your medical condition. While I do not pretend to speak for the FAA, and the final decision is theirs, based on my experience with the FAA I can tell you how to optimize your medical condition, what documentation might be required, and how best to present your application. This can, at the very least, prevent months of delay responding to multiple requests for further information from the FAA. Of course, this does not mean that any facts can be ignored, or the truth hidden.
