Basic Med question

TBalch

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TBalch
First of all, I’m asking for a friend:

My friend recently had an angiogram, which resulted in a stent being implanted. AOPA told my friend that his 3rd Class Medical is no longer valid, that his Airman privileges are suspended, and provided a list of reports that his cardiologist must submit to FAA in support of a Special Issuance.

My friend’s cardiologist seems knowledgeable about the process, but my friend is concerned about the time it will take to process the information at FAA.

My friend is wondering whether going Basic Med would get him back in the air sooner. He thanks you all in advance for any insights the members might offer.
 
First of all, I’m asking for a friend:

My friend recently had an angiogram, which resulted in a stent being implanted. AOPA told my friend that his 3rd Class Medical is no longer valid, that his Airman privileges are suspended, and provided a list of reports that his cardiologist must submit to FAA in support of a Special Issuance.

My friend’s cardiologist seems knowledgeable about the process, but my friend is concerned about the time it will take to process the information at FAA.

My friend is wondering whether going Basic Med would get him back in the air sooner. He thanks you all in advance for any insights the members might offer.

See 14 CFR 68.9(a)(3). This section describes the disqualifying cardiovascular conditions for BasicMed. If his medical condition includes any of these items, he will require at least one medical certificate with a special issuance before being able to operate under BasicMed.
 
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A stent placement will definitely require an SI. For Basic Med it is only one-time though, IIRC, a significant advantage. Good luck...to your friend.
 
Clarify - he had an active FAA medical and then had a stent?

If so, I’m sorry for your friend but the medical is revoked and he is ineligible for basicmed. A FAA medical is his only route back into the air.
 
The basic med gotcha is "Coronary heart disease that has required treatment." The above answers are correct.
 
Thanks guys, I’ll give my friend the bad news.

Any experience out there as to how long it takes FAA to process an item like this once they have the required reports?
 
Thanks guys, I’ll give my friend the bad news.

Any experience out there as to how long it takes FAA to process an item like this once they have the required reports?

Took me four months a few years ago, but I'd bet it's at least 6mo+ right now.
 
Thanks guys, I’ll give my friend the bad news.

Any experience out there as to how long it takes FAA to process an item like this once they have the required reports?
Not bad news. If he's on the mend getting the SI should be fairly simple. It'll take time to work the process but it isn't the end of the road. Had he already been on BasicMed he'd still be grounded until he got a 3rd class SI. Them's the rules.
 
Stent is CAD, and is clearly called out in the legislation. Needs to win his CAD SI.....he's down until he does and the path is pretty straightforward.

First get an analysis for someone knowledgable that there is no part of the heart behind a 70% lesion. If left main 60%. If there is, DO NOT REAPPLY.

3rd class only:
>90 days after the stenting,
Stress treadmill (I rec. Stress Echo) to 9 minutes and >=90% of his age related Heart rate Vmax. get and keep Duplicate original red heat pen tracings, all 30 of them.
>90 days after stent: Fasting Glucosee and lipids.
>90 days after stent: Re-evaluation by cardiologist to discuss functional status, and the managment of his CAD risk-to-progression-factors.

If you have everything with T's crossed and I's dotted I have gotten this one recently in 6 weeks.
 
Actually, the follow up stress test must be a nuclear stress test, and MUST be done MORE than 6mos post procedure. I got caught by this. I had to wait an additional 6mos because my post procedure test was 5-1/2mos post.

Also, FAA lost my first 3 applications and ALL supporting documentation.
Took Senators getting involved.
Still, expect them to lose records... they’ve lost 11 of my past 15 reissuance applications.
They also require ORIGINAL copy’s of EKG’s. No reproductions. So be sure to have several duplicates made. You’ll likely need them. All mailed correspondence should be certified or registered mail, so someone has to sign for it...
Usually takes me 5-6mos to recieve actual SI in the mail. Fortunately my AME is a Sr. AME and old aquaintance of director of aeromedical section. He’s able to reissue my 2nd class without having to defer to OKC.

good luck!
 
First of all, I’m asking for a friend:

My friend recently had an angiogram, which resulted in a stent being implanted. AOPA told my friend that his 3rd Class Medical is no longer valid, that his Airman privileges are suspended, and provided a list of reports that his cardiologist must submit to FAA in support of a Special Issuance.

My friend’s cardiologist seems knowledgeable about the process, but my friend is concerned about the time it will take to process the information at FAA.

My friend is wondering whether going Basic Med would get him back in the air sooner. He thanks you all in advance for any insights the members might offer.

If he had a 3rd Class Medical, then his 3rd class medical isn't valid anymore and he cannot start on Basic Med. His only path forward is to reestablish his medical via an SI.

If he had been on Basic Med already, then the cardiac conditions which disqualify a pilot from using Basic Med are:

(3) A cardiovascular condition, limited to a one-time special issuance for each diagnosis of the following:
  1. Myocardial infarction;
  2. Coronary heart disease that has required treatment;
  3. Cardiac valve replacement; or
  4. Heart replacement.
As noted, a stent is used as a result of CAD.

Your friend's only path through this is Special Issuance.
 
Actually, the follow up stress test must be a nuclear stress test, and MUST be done MORE than 6mos post procedure. I got caught by this. I had to wait an additional 6mos because my post procedure test was 5-1/2mos post.

Also, FAA lost my first 3 applications and ALL supporting documentation.
Took Senators getting involved.
Still, expect them to lose records... they’ve lost 11 of my past 15 reissuance applications.
They also require ORIGINAL copy’s of EKG’s. No reproductions. So be sure to have several duplicates made. You’ll likely need them. All mailed correspondence should be certified or registered mail, so someone has to sign for it...
Usually takes me 5-6mos to recieve actual SI in the mail. Fortunately my AME is a Sr. AME and old aquaintance of director of aeromedical section. He’s able to reissue my 2nd class without having to defer to OKC.

good luck!

This is interesting to me as I am an AME. I have had problems with the FAA losing paperwork sent to them. Sometimes they find them, but usually after I send them in twice. Sometimes they don't lose the entire packet, just a sheet or two, usually the key page they're looking for -- like the CPAP compliance sheet. I've taken to scanning all documents I send to them and sending them the scanned print out with the checklist I use to verify they have all they need. They wont' accept electronic transmittal encrypted or otherwise.
 
Buy a Champ or a Cub.

On Basic Med now and honestly if I had one of the big three I would have to think long and hard about going through the SI process. I assume denial in that case is like any other denial and precludes you from flying even LSA?
 
Buy a Champ or a Cub.

On Basic Med now and honestly if I had one of the big three I would have to think long and hard about going through the SI process. I assume denial in that case is like any other denial and precludes you from flying even LSA?
You’d be applying for a medical, so yes, if you ended up with a denial it would limit options. That said, 61.53 applies regardless of what you’re flying.
 
You’d be applying for a medical, so yes, if you ended up with a denial it would limit options. That said, 61.53 applies regardless of what you’re flying.

I agree, it always applies but at least as I read it there are no specific disqualifiers short of "knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner." There are a lot of people flying every day with medicals that have stents placed, previous heart attacks and other serious ailments.


ETA: in any case I wouldn't even think about applying for an SI without consulting someone like Dr. Bruce.
 
Buy a Champ or a Cub.

On Basic Med now and honestly if I had one of the big three I would have to think long and hard about going through the SI process. I assume denial in that case is like any other denial and precludes you from flying even LSA?
By the way, in my opinion, the “one-time SI” provision in BasicMed demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding by Congress of how the SI process works. I suspect that the committee staffer or whoever that added the “one time SI” provision assumed you could obtain an authorization for a special issuance independent of applying for a medical certificate. That’s not how the medical certification process works. As such, you could take an SSRI, but then have a heart attack and need to get a SI. You’d have to get an SI for both the MI and the SSRI condition (as well as anything else that requires an SI) before you can be medically certificated to meet the requirement for BasicMed.
 
By the way, in my opinion, the “one-time SI” provision in BasicMed demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding by Congress of how the SI process works. I suspect that the committee staffer or whoever that added the “one time SI” provision assumed you could obtain an authorization for a special issuance independent of applying for a medical certificate. That’s not how the medical certification process works. As such, you could take an SSRI, but then have a heart attack and need to get a SI. You’d have to get an SI for both the MI and the SSRI condition (as well as anything else that requires an SI) before you can be medically certificated to meet the requirement for BasicMed.

I actually thought that was how it was going to be at first, that you had to go through the SI process but not actually obtain a 3rd class or higher. Then I saw how it was written. Kind of disappointing.
 
I actually thought that was how it was going to be at first, that you had to go through the SI process but not actually obtain a 3rd class or higher. Then I saw how it was written. Kind of disappointing.
Legally, there is no way to obtain a special issuance without applying for a medical certificate. The statute (codified as 68.9(a)) says that an individual must "complete the process for obtaining an authorization for special issuance of a medical certificate", but did not establish a parallel path to do that without applying for a medical certificate. That would have required significant change in the rules, none of which could be done without statutory authority and the lengthy and resource intensive administrative procedure act requirement to draft a new rule and put it out for notice and comment. The FAA was able to implement BasicMed rather quickly because the statutory language was implemented verbatim.
 
Legally, there is no way to obtain a special issuance without applying for a medical certificate. The statute (codified as 68.9(a)) says that an individual must "complete the process for obtaining an authorization for special issuance of a medical certificate", but did not establish a parallel path to do that without applying for a medical certificate. That would have required significant change in the rules, none of which could be done without statutory authority and the lengthy and resource intensive administrative procedure act requirement to draft a new rule and put it out for notice and comment. The FAA was able to implement BasicMed rather quickly because the statutory language was implemented verbatim.

Well honestly hoping they bump LSA weight limit up a bit and make this nonsense and expense go away for a lot of people.
 
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