Misconceptions among professional pilots about their prospects of continued qualification for an airman medical certificate can prove costly in safety, health and financial terms, says Quay Snyder, a physician1 and president and CEO of Aviation Medicine Advisory Service and its parent company, Virtual Flight Surgeons. In the United States, inaccurate information has a tendency to seep into some pilots’ understanding at different stages of the dynamic process of revising Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) medical certification standards, he said.
Looking back at 12 months of changes, through first quarter 2014, shows a mostly positive impact on this pilot community, Snyder told the Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS 2014) in San Diego, a conference hosted by Flight Safety Foundation and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).
The FAA’s authority to issue waivers to pilots on some certificate requirements stems from agency policy governing the work o…
