According to the article on Aviation Week, medical reform includes that new pilot’swill only need to obtain FAA medical certification one time to establish benchmark of their health, instead of repeating the visit to an examiner. And any pilots currently having the medical within 10 years can also meet thecondition.(McMillin, 2015) Instead of going to see the FAA examiner, they can also to do health
test online and see a personal doctor, and recording onto the log book. According
to General Aviation News, the agenda of the medical reform is to “reduce barriers to medicalcertification in a manner that allows for the continued safe operation ofgeneral aviation aircraft while providing cost savings to both the FAA and thegeneral aviation community” (General Aviation News, 2015) As we can see it is beneficial to both pilot
community and the FAA, pilots will be required to visit examiner much lesser
than it required before. However the reform of the medication need to be ensure
the safety, efficiency and standard of aviation.
According to the an article on AOPA, The Pilots’ Bill of
Rights 2 was passed by the end of 2015, however there are still . According Elizabeth Tennyson, the Senior Director of
communication of AOPA, she states that the current extension of FAA fund willbe expired in March 31 which leaving limited time for the house and senate tosend to the president.(Tennyson, 2016) However the FAA might file a father extension. For her
article, as we can see that it is very hard to estimate when will the reform
actually happening. It takes a lot of time to get everything approved since a lot of oppose voice might be rise by the difference side of the society. there are still a lot of consideration need to be process before the actual reform happens.
As one of the aspect is to reduce the visit the FAA examiner,
the pilot can able to do the simple exams online and also visit a personal health
inspector and put the health record onto their log books. (McMillin, 2015) To pro of the aspect
is to reduce the cost of the pilot for visiting the FAA certified examiner
which might be very costly to the pilots. However oppose side, it is difficult
to maintain the standard, as the responsibility of the exam will be moved from
FAA certified examiner to the personal physician that he pilot found, is it
hard to tell if the personal physician is doing the right job that meets the
FAA standard, and the honesty of the pilot might be challenged since pilot
might be able to hide some of their health conditions.
For me personally I support the reform and I think it is
necessary, only if the cost of the reform will be lesser than the benefits, and
the safety standard can be maintained. Since it is a cost saving for both FAA
and the pilots, and it will be more flexible for the pilots and reduce a lot of
process. Since most private pilot flies for their own leisure instead of
commercial flying, It is alright to give
some responsibilities for private pilot to keep impact their own health
condition, FAA should come out with a plan that how would they maintain the
standard and inspection of the log book that records the pilot’s health
condition.
Reference
GA advocates urge Congress to support medical reform. (2015). Retrieved from http://generalaviationnews.com/2015/11/17/ga-advocates-urge-congress-to-support-medical-reform/
Millin, M. (2015, December 11). Third-Class Medical Reform Moves To Senate. Retrieved from http://aviationweek.com/awinbizav/third-class-medical-reform-moves-senate
Millin, M. (2015, December 11). Third-Class Medical Reform Moves To Senate. Retrieved from http://aviationweek.com/awinbizav/third-class-medical-reform-moves-senate
Tennyson, E. (2016, January 14). Next steps for medical reform. Retrieved from http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2016/January/14/Next-steps-for-medical-reform
I agree with you that this reform needs to make sure that safety standards are maintained. Since the pilots would be keeping their forms and results of their exams in the logbook, how will the FAA or anyone ever know if they are unfit to fly? They may find out after an accident, but by then it may be too late. I think that there needs to be some way to make sure these physicians understand what they need to look for and how to determine if they are fit or not to fly. This also does mean that pilots could be on the honorary system where they need to be honest if they are told not to fly. That can be hard to do since the pilot may think the reason or reasons why the physician said they cannot fly are not too bad and they would be fine to fly or they ignore it because they want to fly. I do think that there needs to be some way to make sure pilots follow orders or some way that the FAA can know if a pilot is not fit to fly.
回复删除I agree with you that this is a good idea to reform due to the cost saving measures, but safety must be number 1. Like you said some burden should be on the private pilots in regards to disclosing their health state, but will they? I think that letting pilots go to any doctor for health evaluations may need to be looked at, they may not necessarily have to visit a AME, but at least some doctor with some knowledge. Maybe that means the FAA creating some sort of online learning software for doctors to use, to become certified to talk to private pilots, not a full AME, but a smaller version. Therefore the doctor actually has some knowledge of what he is signing off.
回复删除