3rd Class Medical Exemption Status

Has anyone heard a status of the 180HP or less 3rd Class Medical Exemption? The FAA, I believe, said they were not interested at the time EAA & AOPA proposed the exemption. I believe this is one of, if not the most, important issue that EAA needs to be continuously pushing. I saw nothing about it this year at Airventure. At least last year AOPA had a large booth at OSH for this purpose. I hope we have not just caved in to the FAA again. I don't think the GA industry or the FAA realizes how crucial this exemption could be to keeping GA alive and getting more pilots airborne! Please if you are EAA brass reading this, do something about it and don't let the bureaucrats beat us again.
Brad

Agree 100%. But DC is all about power and control, and you're asking the FAA to relinquish some of their "fair share".

With the current regime in power, the odds of more freedom happening are less than zero.

That's totally true! It would actually save a reasonable amount of tax money in research and processing by the FAA. The very fact that we want it is grounds enough for the regime to deny it. Still however improbable, it must be one of our primary missions and pushed by the Association and AOPA as well. We need to start bombarding our representatives in our associations and in Congress. The cost savings aspect could help with our argument especially considering our current financial condition.
Brad

Yeah the new CEO of AOPA, Baker, (I don't recall his first name but I know he owns and flies a Supercub so I think he's one of us) just met with the FAA administrator and told him it would be one of AOPA's highest priorities. The FAA Administrator replied to Baker that he was concerned about the possibility of a compromise of safety if the petition was granted. This is the most anyone has heard since the petition was submitted to the FAA. There's a catch 22 which essentially prevents the FAA from commenting on the petition until they have formulated an official response. They have previously informed AOPA and EAA that the petition wasn't the agency's highest priority. Whatever the hell that means!! I'm as frustrated as everyone else who supported the petition. Several months back the EAA tried to get a feel for how many of its membership flies as a sport pilot, I think in an effort to get a dialogue going with the FAA. Never heard if that led to anything...
-Joel Marketello

That's more than I've heard for a while. Wish we could start a movement and light some fires under some butts!

I wrote my congressman, he's a member of the GA caucus. The response I got back was they asked the FAA about the status and the FAA replied that they are still reviewing the over 16,000 comments and talking with the EAA and AOPA. That's a go away, don't bother me answer.The movement should be to keep pressing the leadership of EAA and AOPA to keeping fighting for approval, and write your congressman on your own initiative. Part 23 just got approved by the Senate in a time when hardly anything does. It was already approved by the house where hardly anything gets approved. It's something that should have been done a long time ago by the FAA to help American aircraft manufacturers stay competitive, save jobs and improve safety. It's a no brainer, but the FAA didn't have a sense to do it. They've got airmen test with ADF questions and they spend 50 million each year maintaining VORs. Unless we all participate in applying an outside force to get it done it likely will die

The only way that this will get a positive resolution is to work through Congress for the change. There is NO government bureaucrat that is going to put their name on this change. It will be a tough fight to get Congress to agree. Politicians want votes. Bureaucrats want more power and $.

The best vehicle to execute this change is the Pilot Bill of Rights II that Inhofe wants to put forth in January. AOPA and EAA should be reaching out to the members for their ideas for that legislation. Have heard nothing from either group on this topic.

Exactly! The EAA and AOPA membership, (us), must bombard our association heads with pressure to take this effort to the mat. For both organizations, this issue is of utmost importance! Our very survival as general aviation associations could in a large way depend on the success of this proposal. I never believed that the FAA would ever sign off on the Sport Pilot medical exemption but someone did. We all know that medical self-evaluation prior to each end every flight is the most accurate and SAFE way to ensure pilot flight safety. We absolutely must continue to push this concept to the FAA and our associations so they can push it for us. It most probably will take a grass roots effort to keep this topic in their face until someone finally approves it.
Keep Pushing,
Brad