Medical validity

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Caterpillar
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Medical validity

Post by Caterpillar »

I currently hold a Class 1 medical.

I did my 2019 medical march 25, 2019 (exp. april 1st, 2020)
In 2020, I did the attestation of fitness to maintain my medical.
In 2021, I renew in february.

I am allowed to keep my original expiry date of April 1st again in 2022? I believe I do.

REF:
404.04 (8(a))

(a) the day on which the preceding validity period ends if the medical examination for the renewal of the certificate is conducted within 90 days before the end of that validity period
And how many times can you do an early renewal while keeping that original date? I can assume for someone what has done that 10+ times, it might be a nightmare to keep track with your employer records department, isn't it?
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NotDirty!
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Re: Medical validity

Post by NotDirty! »

While the regs allow for a medical renewal up to 90 days before expiry, giving you the same new expiry date as if you had renewed on the last day of validity. However I have been told by multiple sources to avoid doing this.

If you want to check and see what TC has as your expiry date, I suggest signing up for “General Aviation Online Services”. This site has a lot of great features that apply even to those of us who don’t take part in GA. You can change your addresses, see your flight test and written exam results, see all of your PPC results, and see your medical status. It sometimes takes a while for the data to be updated (depending on how TC processes it), but good info nonetheless.
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Caterpillar
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Re: Medical validity

Post by Caterpillar »

NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:34 pm If you want to check and see what TC has as your expiry date
I don't know about you, but my file doesn't show an expiry date, only the dates of examination, audiogram and ECG (and mine hasn't changed for 4 years, still shows 2017 as my last data for the 3 (even if I have done several medicals and ECG since)).
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NotDirty!
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Re: Medical validity

Post by NotDirty! »

You’re right! No expiry date given… so back to the suggestion to just do the renewal in the last month! Too bad they had to make it too cumbersome to follow their own rules!
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AirFrame
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Re: Medical validity

Post by AirFrame »

NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:34 pm While the regs allow for a medical renewal up to 90 days before expiry, giving you the same new expiry date as if you had renewed on the last day of validity. However I have been told by multiple sources to avoid doing this.
Out of curiosity, do they say why to avoid doing this? The regs permit it, so it's not unlawful.
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rudder
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Re: Medical validity

Post by rudder »

AirFrame wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:38 am
NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:34 pm While the regs allow for a medical renewal up to 90 days before expiry, giving you the same new expiry date as if you had renewed on the last day of validity. However I have been told by multiple sources to avoid doing this.
Out of curiosity, do they say why to avoid doing this? The regs permit it, so it's not unlawful.
My understanding is that nobody gets to shop around for a de facto 15 month or 9 month medical validity.

Medical is valid to first day of following month of medical exam at either 6/12 month interval (as applicable based on age).

I stand to be corrected, but I do not consider COVID related medical renewal policy to be prevailing.
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photofly
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Re: Medical validity

Post by photofly »

rudder wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 2:53 pm
AirFrame wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:38 am
NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:34 pm While the regs allow for a medical renewal up to 90 days before expiry, giving you the same new expiry date as if you had renewed on the last day of validity. However I have been told by multiple sources to avoid doing this.
Out of curiosity, do they say why to avoid doing this? The regs permit it, so it's not unlawful.
My understanding is that nobody gets to shop around for a de facto 15 month or 9 month medical validity.
It’s not 9 or 15 month on an ongoing basis. The only way you’d get a nine or 15 month interval is to renew early and shorten the prior interval to only three or nine months.

Once you’ve used up any single nine or fifteen month interval, your next renewal will be for six or 12 months only, until you choose to renew again three months early.

The ninety day early thing has nothing to do with COVID, and has long been part of the regulations.
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Scuderia
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Re: Medical validity

Post by Scuderia »

NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:07 pm You’re right! No expiry date given…
Not specifically directed at you, but it raises a point

This is because the way currency and the rules are written, a medical does not expire, it has a validity period for difference licences [CAR 404.03 (6)] A medical exam occurs on a certain day, and it validates a licence for X amount of time from the date of the examination.

If I held a ATPL and did a category 1 medical on March 2nd 2012, I could exercise ATPL privileges until April 1st 2013, and PPL privileges until April 1st 2017. Doing nothing since then, all I can say in December 2021 is I have ATPL and had a category 1 medical examination back in 2012. The medical is not recent enough to validate my licence.

Perhaps pedantic and semantic, but it truly does make a difference in understanding the regulations. In particular, it also helps explain why a cat 1 does not turn into a cat 3 medical. A cat 1 is always a cat 1.
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Last edited by Scuderia on Tue Dec 28, 2021 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Big Pistons Forever
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Re: Medical validity

Post by Big Pistons Forever »

/\ What he said

My last medical was in October 2021, It validates my ATPL for single pilot commercial operations privileges to 1 May 2022 (because I am over 40 years old), ATPL multi crew to 1 Nov 2022 ( because I am under 60 years old), allows me to exercise PPL privileges to 1 Nov 2023 and validates my Glider license and Glider Instructor Rating to 1 Nov 2026.

Bottom line: it is up to me to determine if that Medical is valid for the privileges I want to exercise
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Last edited by Big Pistons Forever on Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
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AirFrame
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Re: Medical validity

Post by AirFrame »

rudder wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 2:53 pmMy understanding is that nobody gets to shop around for a de facto 15 month or 9 month medical validity.
But that's not what you're getting. If you have a medical that expires in 2 months, and you get a new medical, that new medical expires one interval (6, 12, 48, 60 months, whatever's appropriate) after the current medical. i.e. It extends you by one interval. So whether you get it two months early, or right on the due date, your medical validity period hasn't changed... It's still continuously covered.
Medical is valid to first day of following month of medical exam at either 6/12 month interval (as applicable based on age).
Unless it's done up to 90 days before the previous one expires, in which case it's valid for up to an additional 90 days alongside the existing medical.
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NotDirty!
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Re: Medical validity

Post by NotDirty! »

The recommendation not to use the 90 day window was at an ACP course, related to the difficulty an ACP might encounter attempting to decipher a candidate’s medical validity. Because no “expiry” date is given, the minister’s delegate who is attempting to decide whether the medical is valid can have difficulty if the Medicals had been completed on the 90 day window, and thus maintained the validity date as if they had been renewed at the deadline.
If, for example, all medicals in your ADB had been completed two months early based on a medical you had had in a previous ADB, but now it is 13 months since your last medical. How does the ACP determine that the medical is valid? It is a solution to a problem created by the poorly administered system.

If I recall correctly, back in the 90s, my medical showed a validity date, and I got a new paper every time I renewed my medical. There was only room for 1 stamp on the back, and that was your temporary certificate until the new one came in the mail. They then tried to save paper and switched to the 4 stamp medicals, with a table to determine validity.
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AirFrame
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Re: Medical validity

Post by AirFrame »

NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:35 amIf, for example, all medicals in your ADB had been completed two months early based on a medical you had had in a previous ADB, but now it is 13 months since your last medical. How does the ACP determine that the medical is valid? It is a solution to a problem created by the poorly administered system.
Ah, that makes sense. You could be legal, but it would be a royal pain-in-the-backside to prove it.
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booster15s
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Re: Medical validity

Post by booster15s »

you are right.
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photofly
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Re: Medical validity

Post by photofly »

NotDirty! wrote: Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:35 amfor example, all medicals in your ADB had been completed two months early based on a medical you had had in a previous ADB, but now it is 13 months since your last medical. How does the ACP determine that the medical is valid?
Carry both ADBs. The expectation to have everything you could possibly need in one document isn’t met in all cases.
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DId you hear the one about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality.
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