Quick question,

I was a civilian pilot, fly military in the reserves and am looking to get back into civilian flying. Does my current flying class I Air Force physical count as my civilian physical if I want it to? If so, what's the process to make that happen?

 

You can forego faa medical if you have a current flight physical and are only exercising third class medical.

14 CFR 61.23(b) Operations not requiring a medical certificate. A person is not required to hold a medical certificate—
(9) When a military pilot of the U.S. Armed Forces can show evidence of an up-to-date medical examination authorizing pilot flight status issued by the U.S. Armed Forces and—
(i) The flight does not require higher than a third-class medical certificate; and
(ii) The flight conducted is a domestic flight operation within U.S. airspace.

Edit-a lot of military flight docs are authorized to do no-joke FAA second and third class medical certificates as well. Ask your local flight surgeon for details.

 

Last I discussed this with a flight surgeon (which was admittedly about five years ago), he told me they weren't doing this as much anymore. They weren't taking them away from the Flt Surgeons who had them, but Flt Surgeons who wanted to get the authority were finding it difficult to do because of the new rules that recognize the Military Flight Physical as an FAA 3rd Class and the military didn't see a need to pursue it.

I'm admittedly ignorant on what is required and if there is any expense incurred by the service or if the onus is completely on the individual Flt Surgeon, but the impression I got was my Flt Surgeon buddy couldn't get one and it was the USAF that was telling him that.


Regardless, I think it should be the equivalent of a 1st class, but I think the AME lobby prevented that and I'm surprised they made it 3rd class only.

 

These are two separate deals;

On one hand, the above quoted part of the CFR says that you military physical "counts" for certain types of flying.

On the other hand, there are also some Flight Surgeons who are qualified to issue FAA 2nd Class medicals as a separate but parallel process to your annual flight physical. Not all Flight Docs are authorized to do this, and you'll have to specifically ask them to do the additional paperwork with your PHA to get the FAA medical issued.

 

I can confirm all the above. You're never going to get a first-class medical from a military flight doc.

 

Except from a doctor in the civilian world who also happens to be a Reservist Flight Surgeon. Semantics.

 

Fair enough. As long as he does it in his private office. The military will never pay for the EKG machine that sends the data direct to the FAA...

 

Agreed - had to go to his office to do the EKG part.

 

If you were replying to me specifically, I understand this perfectly and you're 100% correct. I didn't do a good job clarifying what I was saying.

My point was my Flt Surgeon buddy is saying the AF (specifically) was either telling Flt Surgeons not to pursue the AME aspect of it, or was not allowing them to pursue it. My friend's take on this was because of the rule change (which was a proposal as long ago as '08 or so), there would be no need for it. The AF wasn't taking them away from Flt Surgeons who had them already, or saying they couldn't do them, rather, it was guys like my buddy who wanted to get that ability....