Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
It would seem that there are some who, lacking any qualification beyond a keyboard at their fingertips, would like to dictate to the FAA and to the aviation medical profession how to do their jobs. A doctor who provides a Class 1 medical is performing a rip-off because it wasn't strenuous enough, wasn't exhaustive enough, wasn't (fill in your favorite bull **** adjective) enough, when those keyboard commandos have neither the authority, nor the training, nor the understanding, nor the liability, nor the legal duty (okay, "liability" is a buzzword for legal duty, but it's more of a mouthful if they're split in two), to sign off a medical certificate. These geniuii (multiple genius's) want do do the AME's job for them, and then the FAAs after that.s.
If you read carefully I'm not dictating anything, just discussing some additional measures they *could* hypothetically take, and the costs and ramifications of doing that.
People advocating tougher medicals probably don't realize that's most likely going to start with an annual cardio stress test, which is somewhere on the uncomfortable to painful spectrum (if you're not a competitive endurance athlete), and will cost several hundred dollars. Fringe benefit: If you're going to have a cardio event, good chance it will happen on the stress test, so the AME can apply CPR and AED while the ambulance is on the way... as opposed to 2.5 hours out from Midway Island.
We don't seem to have a problem with sudden incap, so I don't see a need to change anything. The current issues in the news appear to be experience related, maybe aggravated by chronic fatigue from high ops tempo?