The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s Aeromedical Online Course Fills The Bill

Effective May 1 of this year, pilots exercising the privileges of student pilots (not applicable to sport pilot students), recreational pilots, and private pilots now have an alternative way to comply with FAA third class medical requirements. One of these alternative compliance requirements is for pilots wishing to participate in the new third class medical standards to take an online aeromedical training course every two years.

AOPA has been working on this and recently published information regarding the course that they have created through the AOPA Air Safety Institute. The following is what AOPA had to say about the training course.

According to AOPA, The FAA has reviewed the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s aeromedical online course and confirmed that it meets the third class medical reform requirements that Congress created last summer. Pilots would need to complete the course, which AOPA will offer for free, every two years in addition to seeing their personal physician every four years to operate under the law.

“We worked with a lot of constituents to get this course done…. We’ve worked with a number of doctors, general practitioners as well as AMEs,” said AOPA President Mark Baker.

In reminding pilots that they will continue to have the responsibility to assess their health before every flight, Baker remarked about the course, “It’s a good assessment to yourself.”

AOPA says the course covers a variety of health subjects, including the importance of exercise and diet and their effect on your performance in the cockpit, as well as providing in-depth information on heart health and diabetes.

The course concludes with a quiz. Pilots must pass the quiz in order to earn the certificate that is kept in their logbooks for reference if the FAA were ever to ask for verification of the course completion. Those not passing the first time can review the course and retake the quiz until they pass. AOPA says they will notify pilots when the course is available to take.

Baker said, “This has been a long time coming. AOPA and our members fought hard for reforms, and we hear every day from pilots who can’t wait to fly under the new rule.”

AOPA also says they are preparing a suite of online resources for pilots and physicians to help them make use of the new rule and ensure implementation goes smoothly.

FMI: www.aopa.org