"Kevin Young" wrote in message ...

My class 3 medical has been deferred to the FAA. I'd be grateful for any
advice on how to proceed and what to expect. Is this really as long and
convoluted a process as I've heard?

I can only share with you my experience.

My first medical was deferred.

I joined AOPA and contacted their medical certification department.
They provided me with information including copies of the AME's
handbook entry regarding my condition.

Armed with this info, I roughed-out a letter which included
all of the info and test results which seemed relevant. My
physician then touched it up, altered it, signed it, and mailed
it off, accompanied by copies of a couple test results.

I got my medical with no further problems. It took about two
months.

I don't know about the time scale today. Since the first medical,
I have been able to write "no change since previous medical" on
my applications and have not been deferred again.

I have no experience with "pay for expedition" services, but my
guess is that all they can do is make sure you send the FAA the
info they're going to want and tell them the things they're going
to want to hear on the first go-around, and IME AOPA is pretty durn
good at helping with that.

Good luck,
Sydney