medical for student pilot purposes only??

[Robert M. Gary]

I was looking on registry.faa.gov at one of the old guys around here
that used to give a lot of instruction. I haven't seen him around in a
little while. I went to look him up to see if he has a medical. The FAA
shows he has a medical but it says...

"VALID FOR STUDENT PILOT PURPOSES ONLY."

This guy is a commercial/CFI like the rest of us. I've never seen this
before. Is this a "solo" only medical??

-Robert, CFI

[Michael]

> Is this a "solo" only medical??

Nah, this isn't a "solo" only medical (there's no such thing) and more
than likely, it's an FAA screwup (seen it happen before). There are
certain conditions that don't disqualify you if you can get a SODA. If
you have a condition that will allow you to fly with a SODA but not
otherwise, you get a medical such as above, do your training, do you
solo flying, and when you take a checkride, you take it with the FAA
(some FSDO's may designate it, but not that I have ever heard of) and
you get your private and your SODA in one shot.

I guess it could be that he developed such a condition and was issued
this medical.

Michael

[Robert M. Gary]

I have a friend that broke his leg. A year after the Dr said he was
100% back to normal, the FAA finally agreed to do a SODA ride with him
(they wanted to just deny the medical). It was a pretty easy ride since
he didn't have any change in use of the leg, but this is the FAA. The
FSDO handed him a "temporary" medical that allowed him to take the ride
since the pilot examiner isn't PIC. After only another 6 months, a real
class III showed up without restriction.

-Robert

[Robert M. Gary]

BTW: I saw this on another medical, what does this mean?? Does this
means it doesn't work as a class III???

Medical Class : Second Medical Date: 10/2004
NOT VALID FOR ANY CLASS AFTER.

[[email protected]]

I've seen this one before. A friend had this restiction.
Basically, his situation was such that a prior medical condition caused
the FAA to decide that he needed to renew his medical every year. So
if he gets a 2nd class medical, it doesn't turn into a 3rd after the
year. If he gets a 3rd class medical it expires at the end of 1 year
and he has to redo the medical.

[[email protected]]

I've seen this one before. A friend had this restiction.
Basically, his situation was such that a prior medical condition caused
the FAA to decide that he needed to renew his medical every year. So
if he gets a 2nd class medical, it doesn't turn into a 3rd after the
year. If he gets a 3rd class medical it expires at the end of 1 year
and he has to redo the medical.

[BTIZ]

standard process after any heart bypass surgery.. even if you never had a
heart attack..

BT

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I've seen this one before. A friend had this restiction.
> Basically, his situation was such that a prior medical condition caused
> the FAA to decide that he needed to renew his medical every year. So
> if he gets a 2nd class medical, it doesn't turn into a 3rd after the
> year. If he gets a 3rd class medical it expires at the end of 1 year
> and he has to redo the medical.
>

[Sylvain]

Robert M. Gary wrote:

> "VALID FOR STUDENT PILOT PURPOSES ONLY."
>
> This guy is a commercial/CFI like the rest of us. I've never seen this
> before. Is this a "solo" only medical??
>
> -Robert, CFI
>

when you have a medical condition that prevents you from getting
a medical right away but requires a SODA, your initial certificate
does bear that mention; it allows you to do all of your training
just like any other student, including solo; unlike what someone
else mentioned in this thread it doesn't require you to do the
checkride with a FAA inspector; the way it usually works is that
by the time you get ready for the checkride, you schedule an
appointment with one of the inspector of the local FSDO for a
'medical flight check'; not a checkride per se, the inspector
just wants to see if you can operate the aircraft safely and does
not go through the PTS (said inspector is briefed by the FAA beforehand
about what needs to be checked, each person and condition
being different; in my case, partial paralysis of my legs, the
guy wanted to see how I'd handle the rudders (I eventually did two
such medical flight checks, since the SODA I got the first time was
valid for class-III only; I went through the same process to upgrade
to a class-II; I'll go for another flight check when upgrading to a
class-I eventually -- then I should be done :-) as in my case the
medical condition is not evolutive and the SODA was issued without
expiration date or requirement for recheck which is also possible);
someone with, say, a prosthetic arm would be checked differently, etc.

really a neat way of doing it; when I did my PPL(A) in England, it
was far more complicated: no solo allowed during the training... i.e.,
all the solo requirements were done with an instructor (yeah... weird),
and logged as P u/s (pilot under supervision); then, after the
checkride was passed, I had to redo the solo requirements for real
this time, before being allowed to carry passengers; a bit more
cumbersome than the FAA approach (but then again the British CAA was
one of the very rare European civil aviation authorities that would
even consider giving me a chance to demonstrate what I could do).

now, I suppose (not sure about this one, just guessing) that if
you acquire the medical condition requiring a SODA while you
already have a pilot certificate that you might end up -- after a
fair bit of paper work -- with the same restriction on your
certificate until you get the SODA (via a medical flight check);
that's how I would explain what you saw.

--Sylvain

[Chris Ehlbeck]

Exactly. I have a heart murmur and my AME was allowed to issue in the
office this time (providing cardiologist paperwork) with a restriction of no
valid for any class after December 31, 2005. I don't need to make another
trip to the AME until 2006 though. For my 2005 renewal I mail my
information to the FAA and they in turn send me a new medical!
--
Chris Ehlbeck, PP-ASEL
"It's a license to learn, have fun and buy really expensive hamburgers."

"Robert M. Gary" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> BTW: I saw this on another medical, what does this mean?? Does this
> means it doesn't work as a class III???
>
> Medical Class : Second Medical Date: 10/2004
> NOT VALID FOR ANY CLASS AFTER.
>

[[email protected]]

I've seen this one before. A friend had this restiction.
Basically, his situation was such that a prior medical condition caused
the FAA to decide that he needed to renew his medical every year. So
if he gets a 2nd class medical, it doesn't turn into a 3rd after the
year. If he gets a 3rd class medical it expires at the end of 1 year
and he has to redo the medical.