I'm surprised there hasn't been any chatter on this. I was recently warned of the new guidelines by a coworker who barely squeaked by at his last medical. I hadn't been paying much attention I thought the issue had gone away but apparently it's back and worse than before. Here is the "new" criteria that they are using:

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org...stionnaire.pdf

Check 3 boxes on that form and you're paying for a sleep study. Over 50 and male? You've already got two strikes against you. And instead of BMI over 40 (which is pretty huge) and neck size greater than 17" they've lowered it to BMI >35 and neck circumference greater than 40 cm -that's 15.7" for the metric challenged. It seems they didn't loosen the rules at all, they tightened the net! I just want to warn people in case they were as clueless as I was. Hopefully this doesn't get moved to the medical forum since this could catch a lot of unsuspecting pilots off guard at their next medical. I am starting this thread as a public service *please do not turn it into another fat pilot bashing thread!*

35 BMI is massive.

Here is the FAA BMI chart:




What's more alarming to me is the neck size. I'm just saying people might want to check the chart and see where they stand before waltzing in to their next medical unsuspecting.

Yeah, I don't see the correlation with neck size. You can have a low BMI and still have a large neck. I like that being male is already a strike.

They seriously use BmI's? Such a bs way of determining health, and health professionals know that. Im 6'2" ish and 215 but somewhat fit, lift a bit so Im heavier for that reason only. This thing says im overweight and nearly obese. Dont Think so. I could be maybe 205 or 207 if i was shredded and dehydrated.

But I agree, the neck is alarming. Is that for anyone? I mean im an average athletic guy and my neck is more than that.

According to this chart I am borderline overweight. I am somewhere between a 15.5" and 16" neck. I can tell you that I am as skinny as a pole. Hmmmm

Yeah the BMI is a complete joke.
Go tell an NFL wide receiver he is obese because he is 6foot and a 215. See how that goes. Haha

I just found out about this a couple of days ago and there's been surprisingly little in the aviation press about it. The only difference in the "new" rule vs. the old rule is that now you have 90 days to complete a sleep study instead of being immediately denied a medical.

Leave it to the government to conclude that BMI is an appropriate way of evaluating health when careers depend on it.

I think BMI went out the door before Richard Simmons videos, walkmans and leg warmers did.

Don't know of many NFL wide receivers over 50 years old