Practical Tips for your FAA Medical Exam
Tips for your FAA Medical Exam — It’s almost time to renew your FAA medical certificate! Hopefully, you wrote it down on your calendar after your last exam and have been diligently curating your health record in breathless anticipation ever since.
More likely not. For many pilots – if not most, maintaining a medical certification gets lumped in with all the other currency requirements you must juggle to keep flying. How many landings have you had in the last 90 days? What about at night? Do you need a flight review soon? How many approaches and holds have you flown in the previous six calendar months? Depending on your training and qualifications, the list may go on.
Your medical certification is different than other currency requirements
Ideally, you are tracking all those requirements and have developed a training plan that allows you to maintain a high level of proficiency over time rather than simply meeting currency requirements in fits and starts.
Regardless, your medical certification deserves special attention. Unlike other requirements, you only get one medical certification attempt. Did you fall out of night currency? A late night and a few full-stop landings can fix that. Even a poor performance on a flight review can often be corrected in days or weeks after some focused training to address the rough spots.
By contrast, if your Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) does not issue your medical certificate at your exam, it could be months or years before you finally qualify for a certificate.
Think of your AME exam as a check flight.
Few pilots would schedule a fight with a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) for a new rating without extensive preparation. When you are ready for it, you probably – hopefully – will not go through with the flight if the aircraft has a maintenance issue or you forget your headset and charts.
Pilots should consider their medical certification through the same lens. An AME’s job is to evaluate your current health and report to the FAA whether or not you meet 14 CFR Part 67 standards. Nothing more. They are not your doctor unless you also have a relationship with them outside your certification exam.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your exam goes smoothly. That advice might seem good in theory, but what does it mean in the real world? Here is a blueprint for preparing for your next exam.
Start Early
Take no medications, have already reported ALL of your medical conditions to the FAA, and have not experienced any changes in your health since your last AME exam. You might be able to “wing it” at the last minute.
Even if you have already reported everything, you should still take some time, two or three months before your exam, to ensure you have the appropriate records. If you have reported a medical condition in the past, you need to continue reporting it in the future.
Unless you saved a copy of your previous application, which we recommend you do, it might be challenging to remember exactly how you reported things on your application. Did you list your heartburn under “intestinal problems” or “other illness, disability, or surgery”? It does not matter which it was, but it makes your application review go smoother if you report the same things year after year.
If you did not happen to save a copy of your last MedXPress submission, the AME who performed your exam may be able to provide it. You can also request your entire airman medical file directly from the FAA by submitting a Request for Airman Medical Records.
Complete MedXPress Carefully
The FAA’s online MedXPress system makes filling out your application almost too easy. It is easy to check boxes without thinking carefully and move on to the next section without thoroughly considering your answers in the previous section.
Every question matters, and your application should tell a consistent story. Inconsistencies raise questions. Questions create delays. Here are some examples:
- If you list Allegra and Flonase as medications, you should also mark “yes” to 18e (Hay fever or allergy). By the way, Zyrtec is disqualified for regular use.
- If you mark “no” to all of the medical condition questions but then mark “yes” to a medical rejection or disability benefits, the numbers don’t add up.
- If you mark “no” to 18g (Heart or vascular trouble) but have had five trips to the cardiologist in the last six months, your AME will have questions.
At the very top of the “Medical History” section of MedXPress, the FAA asks, “Have you ever been diagnosed with, had, or do you presently have any of the following?” They even ask the question in ALL CAPS to add emphasis.
Take that seriously and make sure your medication, medical conditions, and doctor visits make sense when considered together.
Visit your doctor within 90 days of your AME appointment
All pilots should have a regular doctor. It should be a board-certified physician because if the FAA ever asks for information about your medical condition(s), they will not accept documentation from Physician Assistants or Nurse Practitioners.
It would be best if you also visited your doctor regularly. Do not expect an AME to give you treatment advice or ask questions about new concerns. That is what your doctor is for. Too many pilots attend certification exams with poorly evaluated medical conditions or poorly documented care.
Do not be one of those pilots. AMEs can issue medical certificates to pilots with many common medical conditions. Not only that, you may be able to qualify for a special issuance even after significant health events like heart attack and stroke. The key to making that happen lies in treating those conditions appropriately and documenting your care well.
A well-written note from your doctor explaining how they are treating you for a given condition could mean the difference between going home with a certificate or waiting six months or longer.
Also – go to your doctor. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is true for everyone, but – as a pilot – your career or lifestyle depends on it even more.
Do not take unnecessary risks.
Some things are out of your control. Some things are not. Your FAA medical certification exam is not the place to experiment. You should not schedule an AME appointment until you meet the FAA’s certification standards. If you have a disqualifying condition, ensure you receive appropriate treatment and have the documentation to prove it first.
A few simple tests your AME performs should help drive this point home.
Make sure you can see
Vision is essential to pilots. To qualify for a first—or second-class certificate, you’ll need to see 20/20 at a distance and 20/40 up close. For a third-class certificate, the standard is 20/40 at all distances. You can use corrective lenses to pass the test.
Do not wait until your AME appointment to determine if you meet those standards. First, make sure you can pass easily. If you have trouble, go to an optometrist. You can even have them complete FAA form 8500-7 or document your eye exam another way. Your AME can use that document instead of testing you at all.
If you might struggle with the vision test, don’t risk it.
Make sure your blood pressure is well controlled.
Many pilots get understandably nervous during their AME exam. After all, a lot is riding on the outcome. The FAA has made allowances for that by making the blood pressure standard for medical certification 155/95. That is horrible blood pressure. It should be less than 120/80.
Way too many pilots neglect to treat their blood pressure, at least in part, because they are afraid the FAA will not allow them to fly while taking blood pressure medication. The FAA does not care if you have a diagnosis of hypertension or if you are taking medication for it. You can take up to three medicines simultaneously to control it.
They do care about uncontrolled hypertension and especially about the increased risk of heart attack and stroke that comes with it. Don’t roll the dice at your AME exam. Chances are that if your blood pressure is consistently below 130/80 or the target your doctor recommends, it will not go above 155/95, even when you are nervous. Make sure it is under control before your AME appointment.
Consider getting an ECG from your doctor.
For first-class medical certification, there is nothing particularly wrong with getting an ECG done during your exam. However, you should be aware that an AME can upload an ECG conducted by another physician as long as it was conducted within 60 days of your certification exam.
Regardless of who does your ECG, if something abnormal shows up, your medical certification will most likely have to wait until you get to the bottom. At least if your treating doctor identifies the issues, you can start figuring things out immediately. If you wait until your AME exam, all they can do is defer your application. You must schedule another appointment with your treating physician before you get any answers.
Renew FAA flight physical – Putting your plan together
After years of successful qualification, many pilots get complacent about their medical certification. Others know they have an issue that could hold them back but ignore it or do not know what to do. Some assume that their AME can provide resources or offer guidance. Except in rare cases, that may not be true.
The most important thing to remember about your FAA medical exam is that it is a test, and the AME is your proctor. Like every other test, you need to prepare ahead of time. Even if you passed before, you can still review some basics each time. It becomes vitally important when you develop new or worsening medical issues.
The right preparation can often reduce the time it takes to get your medical certificate to three to six months or longer. That makes a small investment of time and effort well worth it.
