[Peetwo]

AOPA in two hemispheres on Pilot medical reform -

In case you missed it yesterday AOPA Oz CEO Ben Morgan made public the following:

23rd August 2016


The Hon Darren Chester MP
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia.

Mr Mark Skidmore
Director of Aviation Safety (CASA)
Civil Aviation Safety Authority
GPO Box 2005
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia

- Members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
- Users of the Aviation Advertiser – Australia network
- Government Ministers and Senators
- Industry media


AOPA Proposed Policy on Class 2 
Private Pilot Medical Certification.

The Hon Darren Chester MP,

Over the past year aviation regulators in the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (US) and New Zealand (NZ) have all moved to reform their medical requirements for Private Pilots License holders, following extensive evidence based assessment and review.

These reforms (which have been previously communicated to your office) have been heralded by the global aviation community and are expected to breathe essential life back into the general aviation economies of each respective country.

AOPA Australia over the past five years has received thousands of telephone calls and emails from private pilots, all calling for broad reform of Australia’s Class 2 Private Pilot Medical Certification system.  Our membership have demonstrated that a high number of Australian private pilots are being subjected to unfair and unreasonable medical assessments by CASA AVMED which has removed fit and healthy pilots from Australia’s general aviation community and subjected thousands of pilots to unnecessary delays and expense regarding medical assessment.

In consideration of our membership feedback and moves by international regulators, AOPA Australia has produced a clear Proposed Policy position on Class 2 Private Pilot Medical Certification - to which we have attached to this email and included below.

The AOPA proposed policy on Class 2 Private Pilot Medical Certification is important to the future of Australia's general aviation industry and if implemented will serve to reconnect thousands of perfectly healthy pilots who have been unfairly discriminated by the existing CASA AVMED system.

This vital reform will dramatically reduce licensing costs to industry and will remove unnecessary layers of bureaucracy and red-tape that have contributed to the serious decline in general aviation pilots in Australia, which based on CASA’s own data amounts to some 8,000+ pilots exiting our industry (see chart below).




AOPA’s policy will help kick-start and re-invigorate private flying activity within the general aviation industry, which will result in increasing demand for the varying support services whilst creating valuable jobs and opportunities for small business across Australia.

In the recently published CASA Stakeholder Relationship Health Report (click here to download), the surveyed industry stakeholders made clear their sincere dissatisfaction with regard to both CASA’s decision making and performance.  Industry has sent a loud and clear message that we cannot continue with the current system.

Australia’s general aviation industry is calling on you as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport to direct CASA to adopt the AOPA proposed policy without delay, sending a clear message of support to our industry and the small businesses who rely on it.

AOPA is ready to meet with you and looks forward to the opportunity to discuss this vital policy in more detail.

Yours sincerely,

BENJAMIN MORGAN
Executive Director - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Mobile: 0415 577 724
Telephone: (02) 9791 9099
Email: ben.morgan@aopa.com.au

&..the policy:

In a parallel hemisphere...

Via one of PAIN's email chains I was sent a link for the following article from GA News, that warns industry not to become complacent as the fight for the 'Pilot Bill of Rights' & Pilot medical reform is ongoing and not yet a done deal as the FAA have until July 2017 to interpret the law into new regulations:

Medical reform: ‘It’s not over’
August 17, 2016 by Tom Snow 19 Comments

As pilots at AirVenture 2016 and throughout the nation celebrated the July 15th signing of the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 and the Third Class Medical reforms it included, the bill’s sponsor, Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahom) warned “it’s not over.”

During an interview at his North 40 camp site at Oshkosh, Inhofe expressed concern regarding the FAA’s rule making latitude going forward.

“Our job is not over yet because the FAA has up to a year from the date of signing to interpret the law and write new regulations,” he said. “The clock is ticking.”

GAN writer Tom Snow interviews Senator James Inhofe at AirVenture 2016.

Inhofe added that the bill’s co-sponsors and the pilot community must remain vigilant and involved to ensure that the spirit and intent of the new law is reflected in the FAA’s revised rules for private pilots.

“Letter writing campaigns by (members of) the EAA and the AOPA were very effective in getting the bill passed,” added Inhofe. “Those letters were a great source of leverage for us and we could not have done it without strong support from the pilot community.”

Inhofe said he had many one-on-one meetings with his Senate colleagues to solicit their support.

“We had more support from lawmakers on Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 than on the first bill,” he said, referring to Pilot’s Bill of Rights 1, which took two years to get passed.
Inhofe cited critical “across the aisle” support for the first bill from Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada).

In addition to third class medical reform, the newly-passed bill also includes a wide range of new protections for pilots, including improved due process if an FAA enforcement action is initiated.

Inhofe, 81, is an avid pilot and aircraft owner with over 12,000 hours logged. He’s been attending the Oshkosh fly-in for 36 years and has flown in and camped for 32 consecutive years. Inhofe has owned the same Grumman Tiger for 36 years and he once bought 54 brand new Tigers from the Grumman factory in Savannah when it was closing out production of that line. However, an RV-6 is his favorite airplane.

Inhofe’s RV-8

Inhofe introduced the first Pilot’s Bill of Rights Bill in July 2011 after he experienced first-hand the deficiencies of the FAA’s relationship with the general aviation community due to the treatment he received from the FAA when he was cited for landing a Cessna 340 twin on a runway in Texas that turned out to be closed, but not by an official NOTAM.

“It took me four months to get a recording of the clearance to land I received from the controller,” said Inhofe. “For those four months, I thought some unelected bureaucrat could take away my ability to fly an airplane … and it could happen to any one of you.”

On a personal note, Inhofe is looking forward to third class medical reform because he had a quadruple heart bypass three years ago and once again experienced what he describes as the overly-bureaucratic FAA processes that discourage many pilots from renewing their medical certificates.

When the new regulations kick in come July 2017, Inhofe will no longer be required to see an FAA doctor each year to maintain his third class medical. Instead, along with thousands of other private pilots across the country, he will only be required to take an online aeromedical course every two years and to see his personal doctor at least once every four years.

Will there be a Pilot’s Bill of Rights 3? Inhofe said it remains to be seen, but that he will carefully monitor the FAA’s rulemaking process over the next year, adding he is willing to introduce a third bill if needed.

One has to admire the tenacity of Senator Inhofe but also the strong advocacy of AOPA and other like-minded Alphabets in the US.

Here is an JDA Journal article which again highlights the power of positive, unified industry advocacy as those Alphabets, led by AOPA, combined lobbied to convince the powerful insurance industry to support the PBOR2.. 

The Final Word on Risk is heard on 3rd Class Medical Reform
http://jdasolutions.aero/blog/medical-re...or-pilots/

Posted By: Sandy Murdock August 23, 2016

Medical Reform for Pilots

For many years, AOPA and a host of aviation associations have expended much time and effort convincing the FAA and Congress to loosen the requirements for a 3rd Class Medical Examination. The idea was originally proposed in a petition for Rulemaking filed in 2009.

The GA community, convinced that relaxation of the need for frequent review by AMEs, wrote to the Secretary complaining about the delay in enacting the proposed rule. They also convinced a number of Members of Congress, who were also pilots, to introduce legislation which would mandate the reform.

Opposed to this measure were the Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) Association and the American Medical Association. More objectively and thus more impressively the NTSB and its Chairman expressed concerns about this change, which they saw as a diminution of the safety standard.



U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), one of the recipients of the industry lobbying, applauded the enactment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill, which extends the FAA authority through September 2017, especially a section containing reforms to the medical certification process for general aviation pilots that increase training and educational opportunities and encourage more dialogue with their personal physician. As AOPA explained: “pilots who have held a valid medical certificate any time in the decade prior to July 15, 2016, may never have to take another FAA medical exam. While the FAA has up to one year to develop and issue regulations before pilots can fly under the reforms…”



While the technical opinions of the NTSB are, and should be, held in high regard, their general concerns are “trumped” (is that no longer a PC word?) by the following statement based on the insurance carriers expertise:

“We learned that, nearly across the board, medical reform should have no negative impacts on insurance coverage. What most of our carriers told us is that if a pilot is in compliance with the FAA regulations (including medical reform when finalized), then that pilot is in compliance with their company insurance requirements as well.

In fact, in most cases, the language in policies doesn’t even need to be changed. Many policies already state that a valid FAA medical, if required, must be in place for the airplane owner and if the owner follows the new regulations, nothing will change. Of course, we only spoke to the carriers with whom we partner on behalf of our members. To be prudent, when the FAA finalizes the regulations, you should check with your own airplane insurance carrier to determine its position on medical reform.

There’s more good news for AOPA members. Again, nearly 100 percent across the board, our carriers told us that they do not foresee any rate increases in insurance premiums due to medical reform. Do you know why? Because in more than a decade, insurance companies cannot cite any losses due solely to the medical condition of the pilot that would have been discovered from a third class medical exam.

Our insurance carriers are on board with medical reform. They will abide by the new FAA regulations and, frankly, see no changes required. That’s good news all around for the GA community!”

The actuarial wizards, who calculate the relevant risks of pilots without as rigorous medical regime to about five decimals =/- 0.000001. The insurance carriers are best equipped to measure the marginal differences due to the new standard.
They have the data, the statisticians and the risk best qualified to make these judgments. If they are wrong, they will be paying out a lot of claims; that places a very heavy weight on the number crunchers’ precision.
The NTSB knows aviation safety, but the insurance industry knows risk quantification. What’s truly amazing, the private market is even better than the omniscient ones at OMB. 

Top job EAA, AOPA & like-minded Alphabets USA...



MTF...P2