BasicMed Safety Pilot

When we got BasicMed, something wed done for a long time was taken away. BasicMed applies to acting as pilot in command. But, with BasicMed youre not legal to act as a safety pilot for your buddy whos under the hood practicing approaches in VMC. So, you exercise the workaround of agreeing ahead of time that you, the safety pilot, are indeed the PIC for this flight (more on that in a moment), then youre once again good to go even with BasicMed ... if, that is, the aircraft insurance agrees. Lets look more carefully at all this.

Frank Bowlin

Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

BasicMed pilots are legally restricted from acting as safety pilots because BasicMed only qualifies them to be Pilot in Command (PIC), not merely a required flightcrew member for simulated instrument flight.
A common workaround involves the BasicMed pilot being formally designated as the flight's PIC, making them legal to serve while the other pilot practices instruments and logs PIC time as the sole manipulator of controls.
While this workaround satisfies FAA regulations, it can invalidate the aircraft's insurance policy if the BasicMed pilot (now designated PIC) does not meet the insurer's specific requirements (e.g., named pilot status or open pilot clause minimums) for acting as PIC of that particular aircraft.

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This whole BasicMed and safety pilot issue has been going around a lot lately. We’ve written about it a few times. Most recently was just in our March 2019 issue “Logging vs. Being PIC” by Mark Kolber. However, just about every time this comes up in print, we get some reader e-mail asking further about it. So, here’s all you could possibly want to know.

When we got BasicMed, something we’d done for a long time was taken away. BasicMed applies to acting as pilot in command. But, with BasicMed you’re not legal to act as a safety pilot for your buddy who’s under the hood practicing approaches in VMC. So, you exercise the workaround of agreeing ahead of time that you, the safety pilot, are indeed the PIC for this flight (more on that in a moment), then you’re once again good to go even with BasicMed … if, that is, the aircraft insurance agrees. Let’s look more carefully at all this.