Originally Posted by
fatmike69
Let's say one applies for a medical at say, the beginning of the month, and also currently holds a valid medical. The AME then for some reason decides to defer the medical decision to the FAA (a deferral, not a denial). Is the medical currently held still valid until the end of the month, or does the deferral also automatically invalidate the currently held medical as well? I was thinking about this because if the current medical would still be valid, then it would be advantageous to get your medicals at the beginning of the month because if something came up, it would buy more time before you had to stop flying.....
If you have any condition, at any time, that makes you medically unable to meet the standards, then your medical isn't valid. If you got a medical certificate issued to you yesterday, following a visit with your AME, and today you have a sinus infection, your medical is invalid, and not legally acceptable for flight, regardless of the expiration date.
If you hold a current medical certificate and while that medical certificate is current and valid, apply for a new medical certificate, your current medical certificate is valid until its expiration (as applicable to your case, age, etc. In other words, the mere application for a new certificate doesn't end the old one. However, if you have a condition for which a new medical certificate cannot be immediately issued, and you know of this condition which throws into question your ability to hold a certificate, then your medical status is not valid under your current certificate. This is purely circumstantial, meaning you're going to have to be a lot more specific about the circumstances; how this affects you does not affect someone else, unless they have the same identical circumstances. When we talk about your case, we're talking about your case and not someone else's case.
Take the obvious case of an airman who holds first class privileges, with a certificate issued two months ago. The airman experiences a cardiac arrest. Clearly he cannot continue on your medical certificate, despite it not expiring for first class privileges for several more months. A heart attack is going to require substantial examination and testing. But what about something not so obvious?
I was upgrading in the 747, and was due to take a commercial flight in the morning, to begin day one of OE. The night prior, however, I went to the hospital with what turned out to be a kidney stone, in the worst pain I'd ever felt. Surgery was in order. I made a call to the Chief Pilot to advise him I wouldn't make the trip, and told him what was going on. His reply, which startled me at the time, was simply, "call me when you get your medical back." It's just a kidney stone, right? Pass the stone or get it removed, life goes on, right? Report it at the next medical, right (everyone does)? Wrong.
The FAA has strict guidelines about kidney stones, precisely because they can be 100% debilitating. I can't imagine having the same experience a day later, during a flight. I couldn't answer simple questions, like "what's your name?" I couldn't have flown, and if I'd been incapacitated in flight, other than the obvious safety problems (big ones), it would have greatly complicated my medical application later. The FAA doesn't intend to wait and see. Although many pilots have this condition and pass their stone and move on, some concealing it, some reporting it at their next physical, it's a dangerous condition and it does require medical evaluation. In my case, working through my own AME and through a union physician, it took three months of testing and x-rays and other documentation before the FAA formally approved me to continue. I still held a valid first class medical on paper, but so long as I held that condition, my medical was NOT valid, regardless of what I held on paper. Further, as long as the FAA was considering my case, I was not medically fit to fly. I spent those three months under some very tough physical conditions, turning wrenches on C-130's to stay busy: I was in good shape, and kept working, but I wasn't medically fit to fly because despite having a paper FAA 1st class medical certificate, I had a condition which required FAA evaluation. It wasn't a deferred application, but a case of having a medical condition that meant that I didn't meet the requirements of a FAA medical, until further testing and evaluation was done. Among that is evidence that there are no more kidney stones, and they are not expected to recur, stipulated by one or more physicians, and based on x-ray and other evidence.
If you have a condition which requires deferral, that you hold a paper medical certificate means nothing. It's simply a certificate that says you met the standard on the day you applied, and that you were certified to be reasonably expected to be able to continue to hold it until expiration of the privilege period of that certificate. Anything which changes your condition, from a head cold to a heart attack, means that your medical certification is NOT VALID for the duration of that condition. Holding the paper in hand or wallet doesn't change that. If you have a condition that requires deferral (because medical certification cannot be issued or granted at that time), then you're not medically valid for flight and holding the paper certificate doesn't change that. It's not like you can get a medical exam and certificate that says you're medically airworthy, experience a condition that would require a deferral (or denial), and keep flying until your next medical application. Your medical status is in question every moment and every day, even if your exam was yesterday. If your condition ever changes from what it was on the day your took your medical certificate, then your medical status and privilege changes accordingly. That paper in your pocket is not carte blanche authority to operate until your next medical is in hand. Not at all.
I just recently had surgery. I contacted the Chief Pilot a month prior, with the particulars. I contacted my AME. I verified that my surgery, my recovery, etc, would not prevent me from exercising the privileges of my medical certificate. I had a post-surgery recovery period, when I could not exercise those privileges, but after that time, I could. Further I verified what documentation I'd need to bring to my next medical application to cover the event, and how to report it. Transparency. No secrets. A month after my surgery, I made my next medical application and showed up with surgery records, doctor reports, and other documentation in hand, which I gave to the AME, and he subsequently forwarded to the FAA. No deferral was required, and I made sure of that well in advance. Had it been required, however, and had my condition been such that my medical airworthiness was in question and needed further evaluation, I'd have been grounded medically, until that decision was formalized.