Renewal process

On the CMEC, the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist, item 16 in Section 2, the individual information part of the CMEC, you’re asked to provide the date of your last FAA medical application. That doesn’t mean the date of your last BasicMed physical exam, which is required every 48 months, but the date of your most recent application for an FAA-issued medical certificate. If you continue to use BasicMed, the date of your last FAA medical application won’t change until/unless you go back and apply for a new FAA-issued medical, then decide to go back to BasicMed after that.

The CMEC Section 2 is identical to the MedXpress application done online. You provide the completed Section 2 to the doctor who performs your BasicMed exam, and the doctor will then perform the examination in Section 3. Be sure to keep the exam form handy; it’s required under the BasicMed rules, and you will need it two years down the road when you retake the online medical self-assessment course and complete a new certificate form to update the FAA on your eligibility.

The CMEC exam date and the self-assessment course dates are independent of one another. The exam is valid for 48 months to the day, while the course is valid for 24 calendar months (to the end of the month). It’s a good idea to do both the physical exam and the course in the same month. That way you just have to remember the years each is renewed rather than the month and the year. Most users of the AOPA course will opt in to receive an email reminder in the month your renewal is coming. You can do that at the very end of the renewal process.

As far as when you want to renew, you can retake the course and/or the physical exam as often as you want. Some pilots have an annual physical and ask their physicians to sign the form each year. Gary Crump is the director of medical certification for the AOPA Pilot Information Center.

aopa.org/basicmed

NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS

The annual meeting of the members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 19, 2022, at the headquarters of AOPA, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland, 21701, located on the Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), for the purpose of receiving reports and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting, specifically including the election of trustees. If you are not able to attend, but would like to appoint your voting proxy, please visit aopa.org/myaccount or call 800-872-2672. — Justine A. Harrison, Secretary