3rd Class Medical Reform now Law!

[TedK]

Signed by Prez! Well done EAA and AOPA!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-...ed-legislation

ted

[CarlOrton]

OK; so now the questions start.

I read the law from the link TedK posted above.

Background: I'm a Private Pilot. My last Class III medical was issued 12/2004, and expired 12/2006. So I'm covered by the 10-year part of the law. I've been flying under Sport Pilot provisions since 2007.

Reading the law, I'm under the impression that I cannot fly as a Private Pilot again until I have a comprehensive medical exam, signed certificate, and complete the medical education class that will be issued online.

Since neither the checklist (format) or online class exist at this date, am I correct in asserting that I cannot fly as PP until things are formalized in the next 180 days, and I complete both of those requirements?

[wallda]

OK; so now the questions start.

I read the law from the link TedK posted above.

Background: I'm a Private Pilot. My last Class III medical was issued 12/2004, and expired 12/2006. So I'm covered by the 10-year part of the law. I've been flying under Sport Pilot provisions since 2007.

Reading the law, I'm under the impression that I cannot fly as a Private Pilot again until I have a comprehensive medical exam, signed certificate, and complete the medical education class that will be issued online.

Since neither the checklist (format) or online class exist at this date, am I correct in asserting that I cannot fly as PP until things are formalized in the next 180 days, and I complete both of those requirements?

Actually it may and will likely be more than 180 days. The law states that the FAA cannot punish a pilot who meets the criteria you describe starting one year from the date the law was signed. So.... if the FAA doesn't act on this, in one year if we have a means to complete the requirements we are safe. This was added to prevent the FAA from ignoring the law.... something they have done in the past.

[TedK]

One would hope that the FAA could move faster than is required in the Law. There is an existing 3rd Class Medical proposed regulation (notice of proposed rule making...NPRM) that has been staffed within the FAA and held hostage in DOT since July 2014. There is no reason this can't be dusted off and tweaked to match the requirements of the Law.

i expect that FAA and DOT will now act in accordance of th Law and hope they will publish the NPRM in a matter of months vice 180 days. I hate to admit it, but I won't be a OSH this year, but this needs to be a question for Administrator Huerta.
ted

[Gunslinger37]

Well, it has been a month. The FAA should have seen this about to happen and must have been already working on the new regulations. Of course they are a U.S. Government Agency, what was I thinking?
Anyone at EAA or AOPA have any insight into what is going on at 800 Independence Ave. in Washington? How many FAA people are assigned to this task? Do they expect to have a NPRM out in time to meet the deadline in the law?

[Low Pass]

Brings to mind something very interesting heard a few weeks ago. Peggy Gilligan, FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety admitted that the "FAAs own rules get in the way of making aviation safer." IAOPA Conference, July 2016. I applaud her amazing honesty, but am not holding my breath awaiting action.

[Byron J. Covey]

Well, it has been a month. The FAA should have seen this about to happen and must have been already working on the new regulations. Of course they are a U.S. Government Agency, what was I thinking?
Anyone at EAA or AOPA have any insight into what is going on at 800 Independence Ave. in Washington? How many FAA people are assigned to this task? Do they expect to have a NPRM out in time to meet the deadline in the law?

My guess is that they will assemble a team, with membership from every part of the country. After team building training, they will wrestle with defining their objective, then struggle to achieve consensus until next summer, when they will decide that, since the law implements the intended rule whether the FAA acts or not, no rule is required.

Yes, I have dealt with federal and state regulators and bureaucrats.


BJC

[Copapilot]

Do they expect to have a NPRM out in time to meet the deadline in the law?

Don't hold your breath. It will probably take 18 to 24 months MINIMUM for the FAA to actually codify the new regulations. To meet the congressional mandate, all the FAA has to do is to have DRAFT regulations that conform verbatim*** to the actual statute language issued by the 180-day deadline. If they do that, then the 360-day "ultimatum" clause is nulled out and pilots can't avail themselves of the "good faith effort to comply" language of the law (note that the language of the statute is written as an either / or. Once the FAA comes up with ANYTHING in writing, the "or else" language is moot, and the FAA can then take as long as they want to produce the actual new regulations.)

After the FAA publishes the NPRM with the draft language in the Federal Register, they legally have to allow at least 90 days (usually they allow 120 - 180 days) for written public comments. Then, the FAA can elect to hold public oral comment sessions / hearings; THEN they can take as long as they damned well please to address and dismiss / incorporate the public comments into the final rule and change the regulations into something that will actually work given our litigious society and the fact that most GP physicians aren't going to stick their necks out to certify the "airworthiness" of pilots who couldn't otherwise pass a 3rd class medical exam.

*** Anyone who reads the statute's provisions, as written, and compares them to the language of the FARs, will realize that the statute can not be codified directly into the Federal Regulations. (Compare the statute language to that of 14 CFR 67.) The language will have to be significantly modified while preserving the actual INTENT of each clause of the statute, then re-written again into a working set of criteria lists with pass / fail parameters attached such that GP physicians can actually make a valid assessment. This last iteration will be what the Medical Standards Division uses to make the examination checklists that doctors will use. That "third pass" language also will be put out for comments again, etc., ad nauseum.


So, 18 months MINIMUM, 5 years MAXIMUM. First approximation estimate for a "said-and-done" set of regs to be in place? Three years. Pessimistic? You bet - BUT, I've been around long enough to see the FAA drag out even simple EMERGENCY changes to the regs for two to three years.

[mikey]

sorry to say, but this is as close to the truth as you are going to get. when all the celebrating was going on after it became law, I was the gloomy gus reminding folks the FAA now gets a cut on it.....both for content and time required.

[Byron J. Covey]

Don't hold your breath. It will probably take 18 to 24 months MINIMUM for the FAA to actually codify the new regulations. To meet the congressional mandate, all the FAA has to do is to have DRAFT regulations that conform verbatim*** to the actual statute language issued by the 180-day deadline. If they do that, then the 360-day "ultimatum" clause is nulled out and pilots can't avail themselves of the "good faith effort to comply" language of the law (note that the language of the statute is written as an either / or. Once the FAA comes up with ANYTHING in writing, the "or else" language is moot, and the FAA can then take as long as they want to produce the actual new regulations.)
.

Here is what it says:

(i) Prohibition on enforcement actions.—Beginning on the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator may not take an enforcement action for not holding a valid third-class medical certificate against a pilot of a covered aircraft for a flight if the pilot and the flight meet, through a good faith effort, the applicable requirements under subsection (a), except paragraph (5) of that subsection, unless the Administrator has published final regulations in the Federal Register under that subsection.

Here is (a) (5):

(5) the individual has completed a medical education course described in subsection (c) during the 24 calendar months before acting as pilot in command of a covered aircraft and demonstrates proof of completion of the course;

BJC