Destiny Direct Primary Care

This certificate is a regular FAA Medical Certificate on one side and a temporary pilot certificate on the reverse side. Your flight instructor will sign you off on this form as you progress. This certificate must be carried with you when flying. After you finish your training and obtain your regular pilot’s license, the Medical Certificate side is still valid until it’s normal expiration date. The student pilot license side expires 2 years after issuance. You cannot obtain the student certificate until your 16th birthday – you can of course start your training before this time, and will need to obtain the student medical before solo flight, which is also not permitted until your 16th birthday. The student medical certificate can be issued as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd class. If your goal is to solo on your 16th birthday, call me so we can make special arrangement to be available for your exam that day.

1st Class:
Under Age 40: 12 months for use as a 1st class
Age 40 and older: 6 months for use as 1st class

2nd Class:
12 months for use as 2nd class, regardless of age.

3rd Class:
Under 40 years old: 5 years
Age 40 and older: 2 years

1st & 2nd class certificates incrementally degrade over time to the next lower class. E.g. 1st class becomes a 2nd class after 6 months for pilots 40 years or older and then becomes a 3rd class after total of 12 months since issue.
All certificates are valid until the last day of the month in which they were issued. E.g. Certificates issued 03 August are valid until 31 August in two or five years as dictated by the age 40 rule.
Some Special Issuance certificates are valid only for a specified time, such as six months or one year due to desire to have closer follow-up on the medical condition requiring special issuance. These certificates will be labeled with a restriction such as “Not valid for any class after 31 August 2020”

It is a simple physical exam that includes visual acuity testing; the only lab is a urine test for sugar or protein. First class exams once at age 35 and every 12 months after age 40 require an electrocardiogram (EKG).

Most exams take about 30 minutes or less from the time you walk into the office. If you have a history of stroke, heart attack, cancer or major medical problems we often must solicit additional studies and records of past medical care that add very little time to our initial office visit but can result in delay issuing your ticket due to a need for specialty board review process at the Regional or National level and some continuing correspondence with the Aeromedical Certification Division. (A process called Special Issuance). If you have a known medical condition that may require some additional information, please call our office for further guidance. 253 455 5511.

This is a process required for clearance of certain medical conditions such as Heart disease, stroke and several other conditions. It requires we gather hospital records, current evaluations by appropriate specialists and may require certain labs and studies / procedures such as CT scans, Lab studies, Cardiac stress tests, etc. This database is then forwarded to the appropriate Medical Specialty Board within the FAA for review and decision. Your FAA Medical Certificate is then issued by the Regional Flight Surgeon for Northwest Mountain Region or the FAA Aeromedical Certification Division at the FAA’s main medical center in Oklahoma City. The FAA has been streamlining this process and waiting times for decisions are now greatly reduced; some decisions and the ability to issue at my level, from my office, are now allowed for many conditions. A helpful link to answer your questions about various medical conditions, and the FAA position on certification:

http://www.aopa.org/members/pic/medical/certification/

Unauthorized: 

Generally, any medication that has a significant mind altering potential to include sedation, euphoria, interference with balance or ability to make one more vulnerable to vertigo. This would include, categorically, all narcotic pain medicines, many antidepressants, antianxiety, antipsychotic, some antihistamine medications and some medications for gastrointestinal disease.

Authorized: Most medications for hypertension, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, dermatologic conditions, eye problems, arthritis, pulmonary disease, anticoagulants, most antibiotics and hormone therapeutics.

Considerations: The underlying disease or acute illness for which the medications are taken may be more the limiting issue than the medication.

Recommend: Since the above are just broad, nonspecific guidelines, please check with an FAA Medical examiner to ensure a medicine you are prescribed or entertain buying over the counter is approved. Some will be absolutely unauthorized others may only require a time interval between ingestion and flight. Some may pose an adverse interaction with an approved medication you are already taking. Do not hesitate to me with specific questions about medications.
Office: 253 455 5511

There are two excellent programs now available:

FAA’s MedXpress program. After registration, this allows you to complete your application for airman medical certificate on line, saving you time at the exam office. After you complete this on line form you will be given a confirmation number – just take this number to your FAA Medical Examiner’s office and he can download the completed form. You will then have the opportunity to change items previously entered as you wish. It will also facilitate future exams, as the previously submitted information will be there for your submission unchanged or with necessary updates. This on-line form is valid for 60 days, if you do not obtain your flight physical exam in the 60 day time frame, you must re-register.

TurboMedical is a helpful guide in completing your application offered by the AOPA on their web site. This is an excellent program that gives you a practice run in filling out the application, complete with prompts and helpful guidance. You must be as AOPA member to use this service. The TurboMedical form you complete on line is not directly transmitted to the FAA, as is MedXpress, but you can bring the completed form to the AME office. This will preclude having to fill out another form at the office.

This category does not require an FAA medical certificate. You must only possess a valid driver’s license and self certify you are not impaired for flight activity.There is one caveat. If you have applied for a regular FAA Medical Certificate and failed or are disqualified temporarily over some matter, you cannot self certify for flight in sport category aircraft with your driver’s license until the disqualifying issues are favorably resolved with the FAA AeroMedical Certification Division in Oklahoma City.

If otherwise healthy and you pass other elements of the exam, you may well be certified. You must demonstrate, in a practical test given by a flight examiner, that you can perform the necessary procedures in the flight/airport environment. You will then be given a “Statement of Demonstrated Ability” known as a “SODA”, authorizing you to act as pilot in command.

There is a protocol for reporting the offense and it must be reported on your next FAA physical or within 60 days, which ever comes first. See this link for the full protocol.

You may be certified for many of these conditions through the process of “Special Issuance” as long as the requested consultations / studies are approved by the FAA’s Medical Specialty Board.