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AOPA's TurboMedical accepted by FAA for medical certification

Trips to the doctor's office for aviation medical certificates just got a lot easier.

The federal air surgeon has determined that aviation medical examiners (AMEs) may now accept printouts from AOPA's TurboMedical, as long as the printouts are signed in the presence of the AME or AME's staff. In the past, AOPA members who used TurboMedical had to transcribe the information from their printouts to FAA Form 8500-8.

"This is a tremendous change for our members," said AOPA Director of Medical Certification Gary Crump. "The change should really speed up a pilot's visit to his AME and reduce the number of errors caused by faulty transcription."

FAA aeromedical officials were satisfied with some changes AOPA made to the TurboMedical layout, which eliminated confusion in the FAA's Aerospace Medical Certification Division. The one catch is that it needs to be attached to a blank Form 8500-8 for tracking purposes.

AOPA created TurboMedical nearly six years ago to simplify the process of applying for a medical certificate. The online member benefit walks pilots through the process, asking questions about their health and helping to identify topics they should discuss with their AMEs.

Several years ago the FAA began developing its own online medical application system, known as FAAMedXPress, which will permit pilots to submit information electronically. Internal legal wranglings have delayed the launch of the FAA online version, but once the FAA's system is activated, AOPA intends to renew its push to have TurboMedical information accepted online.

February 15, 2007