Do your part
You can help improve the medical certification process
Earlier in 2025, the FAA implemented “tiger teams” at the AMCD to bring the backlog of unissued medical applications down from the 12,500 cases in the queue to 9,100. That number translates to an average time frame of about 150 days from deferral to decision. Continued changes in processing will slowly bring that number down further, but pilots who have new medical conditions reported on the MedXPress application must do their part to help improve these numbers.
The FAA has asked aviation advocacy groups to emphasize the need for pilots to “preflight” their medical histories before seeing an aviation medical examiner for a flight physical. The FAA is moving toward the creation of a “pilot-friendly” plain language version of the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners available online that will allow pilots to prescreen their medical conditions and have the necessary records available to the aviation medical examiner when they meet for the flight physical.
The MedXPress application, FAA form 8500-8, will also include better information about questions on the form, including item 18, the medical history section. QR codes will be provided that will link to the specific information for the medical conditions being reported. AMEs issue more than 95 percent of medical certificates to pilots at the time of the exam. However, as the industry is facing a pilot shortage, more first-time applications are being submitted, and many of those applications involve medical histories that can’t be office-issued and require a deferral.
Pilots can avoid these delays by knowing in advance what is required and having the needed supporting documentation so the AME can direct-upload those records into the FAA workflow. That one step can save months of waiting for an FAA letter requesting that information. No one wants unnecessary delays, so do your homework and preflight the medical application like you preflight the airplane.
The FAA is working to make the process of medical certificate issuance as painless as possible, but we all need to work to make the system work for us.
aopa.org/pps 
