Originally Posted by
hawkerpilot05
I am not talking about it being denied. The term is FAA hold. More and more items can no longer be decided by your AME and must be ok'd by the FAA.
Really? Seems to me they are delegating more approvals than ever to the AME through their AME assisted special issuance program:
https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide/special_iss/all_classes
This is where the hold comes from. You have now started the process to renew your medical so your current medical is no longer valid. However, you have a hold on it as the FAA must decide as your AME can not. Usually this requires additional information that must come from specialist and submitted to the FAA. They then take a month or two to decide and you either get your medical, get a special issuance, or are denied your medical.
That’s sort of the way it’s always been. If you don’t meet criteria all the AME can legally do is defer or deny you. Nothing new about that.
It is in this limbo period where you are screwed. Our plan only covers when your medical is denied, not in a hold. We have a handful of pilots in this situation right now and you can not use your PTO days as it doesn't qualify for FMLA and we are required anyways to notify the company when this happens, so technically if this happened before a vacation period, you couldn't even use that time as paid time off. This is become a bigger deal now. It seems you are almost better off having your medical denied by your AME versus being placed on hold and being deferred to the FAA.
I imagine your AME will deny you if you ask them.