Originally Posted by
180ToAJ
This is a little bit of a stretch, but you make a point. I doubt many want changes to the medical. It just adds hassle. Not that it would matter in the near future.
Do we have a cog test on the shelf ready to go? Wouldn’t it need to be vetted, agreed upon by multiple parties, tested, have AMEs trained on it, and then implemented?
Then you have unions and companies getting involved. It sounds like a lot of uncertainties.
Again, not that it matters for the near future.
The speed at which government agencies move…
The current age 67 proposal will either pass as written, or get deleted in conference. That proposal does not include any changes to medical standards (I'm pretty sure IIRC).
IF it were to pass, then it's possible the FAA would look at medical standards... as you say that would certainly take some time. There are various cog tests available, but they'd have to be vetted for applicability to our application, possibly customized, and then studies done to find out what the pass/fail threshold should be. So that would be down the road if at all.
But cog decline is probably the lesser issue, since routine recurrent training and checking will catch that at some point. Medical concerns related to age 65 will probably focus more on sudden incapacitation.
Also possible conference will reach a compromise of some sort...
As I've suggested, give the FAA three years to do a study and then make an affirmative decision based on that (or report back to congress so they can decide).
Also possible that the Senate might let age 67 slide in on the condition that medical standards get reviewed and modified as necessary by the FAA for 65+