Many in our pilot community may view any “FAA acronym” as acrimonious, or “with anger, argumentative, or leaving a ‘bad feeling.’” In our medical certification shorthand world, medical applicants may receive an “FTP denial,” or “failure to provide” requested information as part of a medical application review. “CAD” is coronary artery disease, something that no one wants to invite over for afternoon tea. An LIE is a Legal Instrument Examiner, and they are the trained specialists at the FAA AMCD (Aerospace Medical Certification Division) who review the thousands of medical applications submitted by AMEs (Aviation Medical Examiners; that’s an easy one!). There are DPEs (Designated Pilot Examiners) who administer flight tests, DCTO-E (Designated Control Tower Operator Examiners) who are non-governmental air traffic control (ATC) tower operators who accept applications for and conduct written and practical tests to certify Control Tower Operators (CTO), DMEs (Designated Mechanic Examiners), and the list just goes on and on!
Now, you may be thinking that I will somehow build an informative article about FAA acronyms, and you would be partially correct, but most pilots already are well attuned to the use of acronyms as so well demonstrated in the Pilot/Controller Glossary of the AIM (Aeronautical Information Manual). But there is one more short acronym that is now well known in pilot circles—BM; not the physiological function our mothers stressed about when we were toddlers, but the very popular and more favored acronym known as BasicMed.
BasicMed, or formally “BasicMedical” in FAA-speak, is an “alternative” to an FAA-issued medical certificate and is comprised of two components: a medical examination conducted by any “state-licensed physician,” either an MD (Medical Doctor) or a DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine). To the point, though (finally), I am going to confess to one “incorrect readback” I committed back in May 2017 when BasicMed was implemented.
Actually, the “incorrection” even began in my mind while this groundbreaking concept was still being mulled over by government and industry as the idea that a “non-FAA-designee”
(and we’re talking AME here now) physician who wasn’t “trained in aviation/aerospace medicine” could be given the “authority” to conduct the physical examination that would become the CMEC (Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist). My somewhat sophomoric cerebrations at the time about the appropriateness of AMEs to conduct BasicMed exams seemed sensible. I mean, think about it, pilots and their aviation medical examiners normally have a good rapport and a common interest in at least one thing: airplanes!
The FAA always did, and does, encourage pilots to discuss their personal medical issues with their AME, which sounds good on the surface, but is not always such a hot idea. (That’s why AOPA has a Pilot Information Center with medical certification specialists who are usually in a better position to provide objective commentary as a “neutral” third party when it comes to medical conditions that relate to a medical certificate.)
That said, when it comes to the implementation of BasicMed, the very suggestion of an AME as a BasicMed physician caught quite a bit of flak from the then-FAA Federal Air Surgeon, who was not a big or even small fan of pilots being able to medically “self-certify” to fly airplanes. OMG! That disdain was communicated to the AMEs and summarily quashed the idea of the AMEs, trained as physicians and in aviation medicine, who see their patients on a regular basis, and who were the ideal “state-licensed physicians,” to conduct the BasicMed physical exams.
I still believe that AMEs are the ideal physicians to do BasicMed physical exams, and I hope that the one or two of you who read this will consider doing the CMEC for pilots who may have seen you for medicals in the past. If for no other reason, consider the economics. If that pilot who used to see you for a third-class medical for $150 but no longer needs a medical because of BasicMed has to find another doctor to do their CMEC, that rapport and professional fee are gone, so it pays to keep that pilot/AME relationship alive, albeit for a different purpose. Just saying!
Regardless of how you’re using your pilot privileges, just do it safely!
