New member - probably an old question

Boom!

Boom!

Filing Flight Plan
PoA Supporter
Joined
Jul 30, 2026
Messages
19
Display Name
Boom
Home Airfield
KJQF
It's been a few years since I first started as a student pilot. I dropped out due to lack of time/money but I'm back in the saddle again. My instructor and I were doing some admin work and ground training a few days ago, and a DPE walked by. My instructor asked him for some help with IACRA, and while he was with us it came out that I'm pre-solo and have basicmed (I had an expired Class 3 prior to basicmed). The DPE said that I would not be able to solo or take my checkride with basicmed. I said that I thought otherwise, but since I couldn't quote the FAR to support my opinion, I didn't argue/pursue it.

Having had time to read up on it, I'm sure I am right. According to 14CFR61.23a3iii: [Must hold at least a third-class medical certificate] When taking a practical test in an aircraft for a recreational pilot, private pilot, commercial pilot, or airline transport pilot certificate, or for a flight instructor certificate, except when operating under the conditions and limitations set forth in 61.113(i). 61.113(i) basically describes the limitations of basicmed.

So as long as I'm meeting the requirements and limitations of basicmed, I can do my checkride under basicmed. I can't find a reference that explicitly states I can solo with basicmed. Can someone more knowledgeable than me check my logic on this please? I'm not trying to one-up my potential DPE or anything - I'm basically just trying to make sure I'm legal, and if so am I citing the FARs correctly.
 
Last edited:
The DPE is full of it. If you qualified for basic med (held a medical on July 14, 2006 and haven't been denied or one of the other events), you're free to solo and take any checkride under basic med.

Understand that DPEs are not empowered with giving pronouncements on the regulations. They're just high-time flight instructors with the political connections to get their designation. They're pretty much limited in authroity but to give checkrides, and if they won't do one to an applicant with valid basic med, they should have that authority pulled.
 
I’ll at least give the DPE the benefit of the doubt, maybe confusing basic med & sport pilots flying on a DL for med. Or mishearing you two. Maybe he was drunk. (But I’m feeling generous today.)

Having said that, contact the FSDO and ask them, not a bunch of sea lawyers on line. If he turns out to be right, you need to know now.

This is particularly true if you suspect you may NOW need an SA to go with your 3rd class. You don’t want to get thousands of dollars into training & be disappointed. No need to be a true confessor & blab everything you might know (or suspect), you’re asking a simple question to get one simple answer. Better yet, have your instructor do it. One call: one topic.

However, as suggested, I’d take my checkride with someone else.
 
rhkennerly said:
I’ll at least give the DPE the benefit of the doubt, maybe confusing basic med & sport pilots flying on a DL for med. Or mishearing you two. Maybe he was drunk. (But I’m feeling generous today.)

Having said that, contact the FSDO and ask them, not a bunch of sea lawyers on line. If he turns out to be right, you need to know now.

This is particularly true if you suspect you may NOW need an SA to go with your 3rd class. You don’t want to get thousands of dollars into training & be disappointed. No need to be a true confessor & blab everything you might know (or suspect), you’re asking a simple question to get one simple answer. Better yet, have your instructor do it. One call: one topic.

However, as suggested, I’d take my checkride with someone else.
Click to expand...
Agree call the FSDO ask for an ops ASI.
 
Thanks, everyone for the replies. I did ask my instructor to dig deeper with the FSDO.
 
rhkennerly said:
I’ll at least give the DPE the benefit of the doubt, maybe confusing basic med & sport pilots flying on a DL for med. Or mishearing you two. Maybe he was drunk. (But I’m feeling generous today.)
Click to expand...
He's wrong for sport pilots as well. Sport pilots definitely can solo and take the sport pilot checkride without a medical. That's the whole point. You don't even need to have previously held a medical, just if you ever applied for one, the last one has to have been issued.
 
rhkennerly said:
Having said that, contact the FSDO and ask them,
Click to expand...
Ah the old, ask an ASI; get an answer you don't like; ask another ASI. When you get an answer you do like, makes sure you get the same ASI if someone raises a deviation.

There are written rules about this. No sea lawyer required. Just reading comprehension.
 
Getting a verbal answer from the fsdo is not going to help you to get this dpe to comply.

Start with a verbal conversation with someone at the fsdo, ask for their email ‘you may have follow up questions’, then write a succinct one-liner question in your email.
Print out their response, have it ready for the dpe & cfi.
 
midlifeflyer said:
The only benefit of the doubt I'd give the DPE is that he was thinking in terms of the usual — a student pilot who has never had a medical before — and misunderstood the situation.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t be the first time an experienced senior aviator wasn’t really listening to the new guys question.
 
In my experience, the people at the FSDO don't always have the correct answers either. They can't all be experts in every aspect of the regs.

Example: I was meeting with a couple of FSDO guys to get my LSRI-M certificate several yers ago. As we finished up, one of them cautioned me: "Remember, this certificate only allows you to inspect your airplane, not to perform any maintenance or modifications to it." I was about to debate that with him, but decided that no good would come of it, thanked them both, and left.

Of course he was technically correct. No certificate of any kind is required to maintain or modify an E-LSA. I'm petty sure that's not what he meant, though.
 
Boom! said:
The DPE said that I would not be able to solo or take my checkride with basicmed.
Click to expand...
DO NOT use that DPE when it comes time for your checkride!!!!

Take a look at 61.23 (c)(3), Part 68 and AC 68-1A.
 
DaleB said:
In my experience, the people at the FSDO don't always have the correct answers either. They can't all be experts in every aspect of the regs.

Example: I was meeting with a couple of FSDO guys to get my LSRI-M certificate several yers ago. As we finished up, one of them cautioned me: "Remember, this certificate only allows you to inspect your airplane, not to perform any maintenance or modifications to it." I was about to debate that with him, but decided that no good would come of it, thanked them both, and left.

Of course he was technically correct. No certificate of any kind is required to maintain or modify an E-LSA. I'm petty sure that's not what he meant, though.
Click to expand...
There are similar ones going way back. Some old timers might remember when the Buffalo FSDO posted on their website that every leg of a solo cross country had to be at least 50NM to count for a certificate or rating.

I had a more recent one. I've done a couple a MOSAIC presentations to local EAA groups. Before my first, I decided to attend a webinar to to get some idea of big areas of confusion. An ASI I knew was one of the presenters. At the time there was apparently a thing going around that 61.329, the provision which allows sport pilots to fly at night with an endorsement, meant that all pilots now needed a night endorsement when flying a 61.316 aircraft. The question was asked and the ASI said that was correct and they had something from upstairs that said so. I asked him to send it to me. Of course, there was no such thing and we resolved the confusion doing our follow-up.

(The important part was that this back-and-forth really helped my presentation since the underlying reason for the error affected other areas as well.)
 
Boom! said:
The DPE said that I would not be able to solo or take my checkride with basicmed.
Click to expand...

He is 100% wrong. I took my checkride with Basic Med. When the time comes for your checkride, try to find a DPE who is more familiar with the regs, or at least one who will say, "I'm not sure. I'll check into it."
 
Palmpilot said:
Is that a relatively recently adopted provision?
Click to expand...
Just part of MOSAIC. Came in with the rest of the expanded privileges with training and an endorsement. It requires the rough equivalent of private pilot night training and a medical certificate/BasicMed, but geared to sport privileges.

3 hours of night flight training in category and class​
Dual night cross country, only 25 NM instaed of 50​
10 night takeoffs and landings​

The confusion came in because of all the language in MOSAIC about private pilots exercising sport privileges. The theory was that all pilots flying a 61.316 aircraft now needed the endorsement. I had so much fun discussing that one with an ASI and even more fun discussing it during the presentations I have done because it was a recurring concept with all the new sport privileges, like retractable gear and constant speed props.
 
I suspect this DPE knows the regs, but didn’t take the time to listen and comprehend before speaking.
 
Boom! said:
It's been a few years since I first started as a student pilot. I dropped out due to lack of time/money but I'm back in the saddle again. My instructor and I were doing some admin work and ground training a few days ago, and a DPE walked by. My instructor asked him for some help with IACRA, and while he was with us it came out that I'm pre-solo and have basicmed (I had an expired Class 3 prior to basicmed). The DPE said that I would not be able to solo or take my checkride with basicmed. I said that I thought otherwise, but since I couldn't quote the FAR to support my opinion, I didn't argue/pursue it.

Having had time to read up on it, I'm sure I am right. According to 14CFR61.23a3iii: [Must hold at least a third-class medical certificate] When taking a practical test in an aircraft for a recreational pilot, private pilot, commercial pilot, or airline transport pilot certificate, or for a flight instructor certificate, except when operating under the conditions and limitations set forth in 61.113(i). 61.113(i) basically describes the limitations of basicmed.

So as long as I'm meeting the requirements and limitations of basicmed, I can do my checkride under basicmed. I can't find a reference that explicitly states I can solo with basicmed. Can someone more knowledgeable than me check my logic on this please? I'm not trying to one-up my potential DPE or anything - I'm basically just trying to make sure I'm legal, and if so am I citing the FARs correctly.
Click to expand...
I do not think the DPE understood, I do not like to doubt DPEs, however you can take your checkride with a BasicMed.

also if you need any checkride prep material. We have free checkride prep pdfs and articles on our site!

as well as we have a checkride activity workbook, that if you can complete the workbook then you are going to ace your checkride!!

you are legal with a Basicmed, and you will be soon flying up in the sky as a Private pilot!!
 
midlifeflyer said:
Just part of MOSAIC. Came in with the rest of the expanded privileges with training and an endorsement. It requires the rough equivalent of private pilot night training and a medical certificate/BasicMed, but geared to sport privileges.

3 hours of night flight training in category and class​
Dual night cross country, only 25 NM instaed of 50​
10 night takeoffs and landings​

The confusion came in because of all the language in MOSAIC about private pilots exercising sport privileges. The theory was that all pilots flying a 61.316 aircraft now needed the endorsement. I had so much fun discussing that one with an ASI and even more fun discussing it during the presentations I have done because it was a recurring concept with all the new sport privileges, like retractable gear and constant speed props.
Click to expand...
Thanks. So to be clear, does that allow a private pilot with neither a medical certificate nor BasicMed to exercise sport-pilot privileges at night?

When I was exercising sport-pilot privileges before BasicMed came in, there was a flight on which I had to divert to Palo Alto when a mishap closed the runway at San Carlos so close to the start of official night time that it was the only way I could be sure of getting on the ground in time. I had to get a cab to retrieve my car, and the next morning I had to reverse the process (except I used my folding bike for the ground portion). Night privileges would have made it possible to wait for for the San Carlos runway to be cleared.
 
Palmpilot said:
Thanks. So to be clear, does that allow a private pilot with neither a medical certificate nor BasicMed to exercise sport-pilot privileges at night?
Click to expand...
No, in the quote you reposted it spceciffically state you need a "medical certificate/BasicMed" to fly at night. In your scenario you have a Private Pilot Certificate, but you cannot exercise your pilot privileges day or night in a certified aircraft or at night in a MOSAIC aircraft because you do not meet the medical requirements.
 
Palmpilot said:
Thanks. So to be clear, does that allow a private pilot with neither a medical certificate nor BasicMed to exercise sport-pilot privileges at night?
Click to expand...
No. The night flight prohibition is a sport privilege operational limitation. If it could be overcome with only training and endorsement (like operating in communication airspace), then it wouldn’t apply to a private pilot. But this one requires training and endorsement and medical clearance.
 
Fffflats said:
You could also search for FAA legal interpretations. And if none exists, ask there. Theirs would be above any FSDO answer. But their response time could be longer than desired.

Click to expand...

Sometimes they flub things up like what it means for a mechanic to supervise yet others they flub up the other way such as that lack of night currency on part of instructor, instructor and student, or “student” can get current in the same sortie. But this one seems simple enough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top