Speaker A and Chris explain how helicopter pilots get medical certificates from aviation medical examiners. Third class covers recreational flying, first and second class for commercial work. Medications and medical history can disqualify you, so check with an AME before spending money on flight training.
All right, flight brief number four, medical certificate questions again. We agreed this morning that we get this a lot. I'm gonna let Chris start off. What kind of questions are you getting about medical certificates and getting that certificate?
You know, we already answered the too old. So you're too old. The other for the medical. Do realize you do have to take a medical exam and it's just not with your family doctor where he goes in and checks your heart rate and you're good to go. No, you have to be seen by an aviation medical examiner, an ame, and depending on what level, you know, if you want to just fly for fun, then all you need is a third class. They're going to check your vision, they're going to check your body, your body weight and that kind of stuff to make sure that you're somewhat healthy. Usually if you just want the third class, then there's not that much to it. But if you want to fly commercially, you know, then they're going to take it to the next step. My main thing is if you're, you know, older person, I even hate to use that, because I'm starting to get up there now. But the main thing is, if you're taking any type of prescribed medication, then I would advise you before you dump a whole bunch of money into flight training is call an AME and straight up ask them, say, hey, I am on, you know, such and such medication for blood thinner. Is that an exclusion where I will not be able to get my helicopter rating? Sure. You know, and do realize a lot of. A lot of prescriptions you can get exemptions for, but you're just gonna have to jump through some hoops to do it. Yeah, you know, I, you know, I flew with a guy who was just. That's exactly the example. Just exactly what he was doing. He had. He was taking two or three different prescribed medications because he had some heart issues. And I told him, I told him straight up. I was like, before we even, you know, he took his Discover flight, I said, hey, before we go any farther, you should get your medical and just to make sure that you're good to get your rating on down the road.
Yep.
And do that and. Or look it up on the Internet, Google it, and just say, hey, I'm taking blood type A medication. Is this. Does this exempt me from getting a helicopter rating or a pilot certificate? And they'll tell you, you know, sure, yeah. That's my thing is you. You don't want to get a whole bunch of money in there, and then you know, then 10 hours in you had to go, you go to the examiner and they're like, oh, sorry, you can't get your rating because of whatever.
Exactly, exactly. And I get questions all the time, like example, you know, color blindness or a heart condition or, I mean, the questions are endless on somebody on a medical issue you could have, right? So as pilots, we're just pilots, we can't tell you. And I, sorry, I can't always answer the question, but what I want to tell you is very important. The medical examiner that's been doing mine the last four or five years, he's a flight surgeon, he's been doing it for over 40 years. And every year when I go to get my medical, he always says, calm down, blood pressure's a little high, right? Because I go in nervous, right? And he goes, everybody comes in nervous every year, especially as you get older, right? And he always gives me this statistic on how many people actually fell the medical. And I'm not going to repeat the number because I don't remember what it is, but it's very, very, very. There are so many problems that you can possibly have. But if you're under the care of a physician, there are many things that still allow you to get a medical certificate. And as Chris stated, it depends on whether you're doing private work or commercial work or you're going to be an ATP. There's between third class, second class, first class. There's different qualifications on what you can and can't have. So it's a wide variety of questions. And we appreciate people when you ask us, just as helicopter pilots, we're not smart enough to be able to answer when you say, am I going to be able to get a medical like Chris already said, just Google search for a aviation medical examiner in your area, call them up or schedule an appointment and go in and talk to them because you're going to be spending a bunch of money. As we just talked about in a previous video, what's the cost for private pilot? I'll put that link below. You're going to be spending a ton of money.
I would think that if you're not, and again, this is my. I'm just a pilot, right? I would think that if you're not taking any prescribed medication and you're not and you're healthy and never had any major operations, you're probably more likely going to pass your third class medical. If you are taking some type of prescribed medication for high blood pressure or you had a heart transplant and were hospitalized and now you're taking heart medication. That's all stuff that you definitely need to call and ask about, or look it up and see what the Internet says. But yeah, I would think that if you're not prescribing anything, you're not taking medication. You're probably going to at least definitely get your third class.
Absolutely. Great advice. So go down below and let us know about your questions that you may have about learning to fly helicopter careers. We're going to be answering these every day. Down below. You can also get a free PDF copy of top 10 checkride tips, free PDF down below. And there's also a link for helicopterground.com where we offer ground school memberships to help you get your rating. So do us a favor, subscribe the channel, click the bell, and we'll see you in the next video. Hell yeah.
Doing good. I like it.
