Well, I don't know where to begin. I have been looking around the Internet and there seems to be a lot of people that have lost sight of the reason so many pilots supported the pilot's Bill of Rights 2. The reason for all the support was the language of the medical reform in its original form. It has been proven by the track record of sport pilot rules and through historical statistical data that a medical exam by the FAA is not required for safety. So let us look at the real reasons why your Senators and Congressmen as well as the FAA insist on you having some sort of medical exam associated with the privilege of flying an airplane in the skies over the United States.
1. The Chicken Little syndrome. The problem with the public's perception of the flying public, is the general public thinks an airplane is going to fall out of the sky on top of their house at any moment; after all they see it on TV day after day. So who can blame them for believing that the sky is falling. Your government officials are not willing to take the heat if some small plane piloted by a non-medical certified pilot falls on somebody's house. The lack of the medical exam will be sensationalized by the media immediately. Yet, if that same person was to drive their car into that same house it would never make it to the nightly news. Plus only the possibility of negligence would be looked at in the case of the automobile driver .
2. These government officials are getting a lot of heat from several different sources to not allow the driver’s license medical to pass in its original form. These sources are medical examiners, pilot associations and other individuals with personal agendas.
The medical examiner's along with the FAA does not want to lose control. An the case of the medical examiner it is the income and control.
The pilots associations don't want those pesky little general aviation people to get anymore freedoms in “their airspace”. What a nuisance these little taxpayers put on commercial aviation.
Many of the individuals that have personal agendas range from people who think that because that's the way it's always been so that is the way it should stay, to those that honestly think it is less safe without the medical rule, which as stated above has been proven to be false.
3. Politics never changes. My own Sen. Angus King of Maine responded to my original request the support the medical reform. He stated very plainly that he didn't believe it was a good idea because of the safety issue. He said he might support some kind of legislation that included an examination by your doctor. It strikes me as kind of strange that he now supports the bill while the language has been changed.
If I had to guess I would say that the majority of the political professional people that have signed on to this reform, did so because of the rewording and never intended to see it pass in its original form. Again the Chicken Little syndrome strikes at the heart of America. These folks are not about to take the heat when some small plane makes the nightly news sticking out of the side of a house and the pilot had no medical certificate. It will not matter that the reason the crash occurred was bad weather, or a bad decision, or just plain ran the plane out of gas. The focal point will be the no medical issue.
Of course all of this is bull crap because of the fact that the statistical data proves that the medical certificate is not necessary for safety. It's the perception of safety which is nothing more than a political issue that is being addressed by your Senators and Congressmen. It is human nature to take the easy route that allows you to claim victory and be a hero.
This is a bait and switch operation from the beginning. It appears now that no one in the official capacity of negotiating the end result ever had any intention of passing this in its original form or anything like it.
Let me be the first to warn everyone about what's going to happen when you go to your own doctor for a medical exam. There will be a form of some kind rather it be online will come directly from your doctor that you will have to fill out. Your doctor knowing this, will scrutinize your medical conditions the matter what they are to the extreme. Unlike the FAA's medical examiners your doctor has no protections against liability for allowing you to fly. And even more, you never tell the FAA medical examiner all the little stuff that your doctor already knows. Your doctor would be his mind to sign you off to fly because of the liability it will heap upon him or her. Don't think this won't happen, because it will.
This is not the time to fold and allow AO PA and EAA to knuckle under to the political pressures at hand. Everyone needs to write directly to their congressmen and senators and tell them that you appreciate them being signed on to the pilot's Bill of Rights 2 in its original form only. Explain to them that you do not want them to support the variation that is being sold at this time.
What happened to the driver’s license medical. I have a commercial driver’s license that allows me to drive an 80,000 pound tractor trailer down the road at 70 mi./h passing automobiles coming in the opposite direction also doing 70 miles an hour and I door handles pass within a couple of feet of each other. I am considered medically fit to operate this vehicle in this most dangerous scenario