On Wed, 3 Sep 2008 07:23:46 -0500, Viperdoc wrote:

A special issuance requires an extensive review of records, along with
dictation of a letter (that has to be done by a paid transcriptionist) and
then submission to the FAA.

Most docs actually barely break even or lose money doing this service for
pilots.

So, yes, it's expensive, but so are a lot of other aspects of flying. I
personally would rather have someone identify a potential problem and
address the issue, rather than keep on flying until something breaks, just
as if my mechanic found some potential problem that would ultimately save
money or my life down the line.

God knows I want to be the last to increase the cost of flying, or the
barrels that we have to jump over to get and keep a PPL, but if the
choice is a higher medical std (as Dudley suggested that might escalate
with age, I vote for that. Anything to keep an arbitray age cutoff date
out of flying.