medical waiver and sport pilot

I am posting this in the hopes that it will prevent someone from being denied sport pilot (rv12) status. One of our neighbors had a medical waiver that was due to expire. He requested an extension through his ame. What he got back was a denial of his medical. Apparently medical waivers are treated differently than regular medicals. You cannot let your medical waiver expire and then fly sport pilot. You must surrender your medical with a waiver before it expires.
The pilots ame did not know this and was working with the pilot. However, the pilot has now lost all flying ability.

Please do not take my accounting as gospel as it was related by the pilot who lost his medical and I am by no means qualified to advise on this issue

I don't know anything about waivers but special issuance medicals do not work that way.



If you let your special issuance medical expire without ever having it denied or revoked, you can fly under the Sport Pilot rules.

If something changes when you go to renew your special issuance medical that causes it to get denied, you are not allowed to fly under the Sport Pilot rules. Works the same way as a regular 3rd class medical in this regard.

It is possible however to jump thru the FAA hoops and get a previously denied special issuance medical renewed if you can satisfy their requirements. If you do, you are good to go again unless in the future you try to renew it and get denied again.....same thing as a 3rd class medical.

The current system is a fine example of how screwed up the system is. The current system encourages people to hide their medical deficiencies in fear of getting denied. If they never get denied and allow their medical or special issuance to expire, they are free as a bird forever under the Sport Pilot rules. The guy that is upfront and managing his health situation is almost guaranteed to lose all of his flying privileges eventually.

Bottom line...if you won't pass, let it expire...Poof! Your now a medically deficient Sport Pilot!

Get denied and...Poof! Your now a medically deficient spectator!

If he had not requested an extension, he would have been good-to-go.
Once he received the denial, he was grounded.

Having maintained a first class medical for the last 30+ years, I have learned a few lessons. First, know and understand the rules. Not the medical science, the procedures, as Mel pointed out, there are some "gotchas." Second, find an AME that has your interests at heart, not just a quick few bucks. A caring AME will help you with an issue before it becomes a problem, giving you time to take some corrective action and will be avalable to give advice and council when your family doctor diagnoses something that may affect your medical. Too many of the horror stories on this forum involve an AME that had no prior knowlege of the story and/or was selected from the yellow pages, not from a reccomendation or referral.

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAAST Team Representative
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA