FAA Backtracks on Medical Deferral Changes

Give the FAA credit for reacting quickly to pilot and industry pushback on changes to medical deferrals that were set to begin after the first of the year. As previously reported, a change to FAA policy on medical deferrals would have set in motion knock-on effects that could impact pilots flying under conventional medicals as well as those hoping to one day use BasicMed or fly as sport pilots. More recently, industry groups pushed back on the changes.

Now the FAA says it will hold fire on these changes. In a statement, the agency said, "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will postpone the implementation of a process change for individuals applying for an airman medical certificate with incomplete exams and paperwork after receiving feedback from aviation stakeholders. The process of issuing initial denials set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, will be postponed until March 1, 2025. The decision to implement this change was not associated with the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, but the need to provide immediate answers to airmen regarding the medical certification process. Postponing allows the FAA additional time to educate the pilot community and to host a listening session with various aviation associations in early January."

aviation medical FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)

Marc CookEditor

Marc Cook is a veteran special-interest journalist who started as a staffer at AOPA Pilot in the late 1980s. Marc has built two airplanes, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glasair Aviation Sportsman, and now owns a 180-hp, recently modernized GlaStar based in western Oregon. Marc has 5,000 hours spread over 200-plus types and four decades of flying.