BasicMed Lacks Admin

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 09:10 AM ET

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Honda Aircraft's HA-420 [Courtesy: Honda Aircraft]

Key Takeaways:

BasicMed is a popular alternative medical certification, used by over 55,000 pilots since its 2017 implementation, allowing flight under specific aircraft and operational restrictions primarily within the U.S.
An audit identified that the FAA currently lacks procedures to verify the validity of pilots' required driver's licenses and to confirm that BasicMed medical exams are performed by eligible state-licensed physicians.
Assessing BasicMed's impact on general aviation safety is challenging due to insufficient data, particularly the absence of reliable yearly flight hour information, which hinders the determination of accident rates and causality.

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While BasicMed was mistakenly called third-class medical reform, it didn’t replace the third-class medical, but it did give pilots another option to fly. It has been popular with pilots who only need a third-class medical, but BasicMed does have some restrictions compared to a third-class medical. Since April 2020, more than 55,000 pilots are flying with BasicMed in lieu of an FAA medical certificate. It appears that the numbers have stabilized around that level.

BasicMed officially came into existence through legislation in July 2016. The FAA then implemented the legislation through regulation by issuing 14 CFR Part 68: “Requirements for Operating Certain Small Aircraft without a Medical Certificate” in Jan 2017. It also issued the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist (CMEC) which is used for the medical exam. The term “BasicMed” was also coined at that time. Pilots started flying under BasicMed as of May 2017.