U.S. FAA Class 3 Medical

U.S. Medical Road Trip...

As I'm sure many readers are aware, CTC Aviation deliver the physical flying component of our training from either Goodyear in Arizona or Hamilton in New Zealand and in our case the majority of the course are off to Arizona. During our administration meeting we soon discovered that the U.S. has much more paperwork to complete when compared to New Zealand as we have to obtain an FAA medical, apply for a U.S. Visas and then once granted apply for the right to fly in the United States for the purposes of pilot training. 

To get the ball rolling CTC provided us with instructions on how to complete our U.S. visa applications, for which I'll write a separate post down the line, and booked the entire Arizona cohort in for medicals at a local Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved medical examiner. The group was split into an AM and PM session and to help us get there CTC insured a couple of us on their company vehicles and covered the fuel costs.  

We were at the practice for about an hour or so whilst they saw each of us in turn and thankfully it was good news all round. We were all issued with FAA certificates and we were free to return to studying for the upcoming exams. Perhaps in the interest of health our detour on the way home wasn't the best of ideas, but we celebrated another milestone, albeit small, with a trip to KFC. One won't hurt will it :-)

If you're interested in finding out what's included in the medical, read below. Otherwise that's it for this post, until next time!

What's included in the FAA Class 3 Medical?

The FAA Class 3 medical is similar to that of the UK CAA's Class 2 medical and deems the holder medically fit to operate a General Aviation/Trainer aircraft such as CTC's Diamonds'. As you would expect, it was much less involved assessment than the UK CAA Class 1 and covered the following areas:

• Eye Sight (inc. Colour Vision)
• Hearing (being able to hear normal conversation at a distance of 6ft)
• Psychiatric Review (if applicable)
• Medical History Review (if applicable)
• Cardiovascular Tests
• General Medical Check Up (Urine Sample, Height, Weight, Reflexes etc)

If you're interested in the full details, you can find them here.