Special issuance renewals are easier than ever
By AOPA ePublishing staff
With 34 covered conditions and more than 26,000 participants—a new record—it’s easier than ever to get your special issuance medical renewed, often right in your aviation medical examiner’s (AME’s) office.
More than a decade ago, AOPA asked the FAA to allow AMEs to renew previously approved special issuance medicals for “low risk” medical conditions. The FAA agreed. Since the program, called the AME Assisted Special Issuance program or AASI, began in 2003 it has expanded to allow AMEs to renew medicals for 34 conditions, including Type II diabetes, asthma, and almost all cardiac conditions for third class medicals.
More than 26,000 pilots now hold AASI medicals, and the program has significantly reduced the time needed to review, process, and issue special issuance medicals.
For more about AASI medicals, including qualifying conditions and circumstances, see AOPA Online. You can also learn more about how to get initial medical certification after a cardiac event with the AOPA Air Safety Foundation’s SafetyCast seminar, sponsored through a grant from United Technologies.
January 16, 2008
