Can I withdraw my medical application?

[Superfortress123]

I did my 3rd class medical examination last week and was deferred. As luck would have it, circumstances have arisen that will require me to be out of the U.S. for a few months starting in late September. Given the time it will take to receive the (likely) FAA request for more records, the time it will take to compile requested records and schedule and receive any relevant psychiatric evaluations, and the round trip time to send those records and receive a response, it seems unlikely that the entire process could be completed by late September.

Is it possible to withdraw my application so that I can "restart" it at a later date?

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

After a denial, all flying is off the table. Before BasicMed, you must restablish the 3rd class.

True for powered airplanes, but possibly not for gliders (or other operations not requiring a medical certificate). This depends on whether the OP can still meet the requirement of 61.53 (b) that he/she does not know of or have any reason to know of a condition which would prevent operation in a safe manner.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

So what happens if a denial is issued due to lack of correspondence? Some of the comments here suggest a denial means one would be forever ineligible to fly, while other comments suggest simply reapplying at a later date.

Are those mutually exclusive? If you don’t have a medical certificate, you cannot engage in operations requiring one. Does not matter why you were denied.

At the same time you can reapply for a medical certificate when you and the AME believe that such application will be successful.

I don’t believe the case of being denied a medical certificate for a medical reason and then flying an operation under 61.53(b) without a certificate, arguing that one does not have a condition which would prevent safe operation, has ever been adjudicated in an administrative or court case.

I suspect in a really egregious case the FAA might try and argue that the airman should have known due to the denial, but I am not aware of any actual case on this.

One of those corner cases where there is not an exact answer under current regs.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

@bflynn Yes, that is the position of the FAA provided on a web page. I don’t believe this is formally stated in a letter of interpretation or has been adjudicated.

The case of a deliberate gaming and just not answering in the face of serious medical disability would likely be a clear one. The unclear ones would be similar to some of the cases we read about here from time to time, e.g.,

Applicant for 3rd class has distant history of ADHD in childhood and was medicated for a while but it did not work and meds discontinued. Has been well otherwise since. Is denied after application submitted. Applicant does not want to spend the money on pursuing that full investigation which would be necessary. After checking with own physician that they have no reason to believe the applicant cannot safely operate an aircraft, eventually the applicant starts flying gliders.

Is the applicant operating in violation of 61.53(b)? I can see a reasonable argument that they are not.

Separate questions are whether such a case would ever be pursued by the FAA and whether the applicant would want to be a test case.

And of course when stating it’s position, a regulatory agency will almost always err on the side of expanding it’s authority. (Also, I don’t think the implications for gliders and balloons receive too much attention from the FAA when thinking through these issues. This type of aircraft is regarded as being less dangerous to others.)

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

For either sport pilot or BasicMed, since your current application is on its way to being denied, you would need to successfully reapply for a medical certificate before you would be eligible for either of those. (Let me know if you want a citation to the regulations that cover that.)

Can you easily cite the regs which apply this to sport pilot and BasicMed? (There is the reference to an opinion stated by the FAS linked above, but that is not a reg or LOI) Thx.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

So what you’ve done by applying is screw yourself into a denial, if by happenstance and no fault of your own, you are unable to provide the information requested during the allotted time. What if the letter from the FAA gets lost in the mail? Wait, that never happens.

Sadly for the OP he has ended up in a bad place by not researching ahead of time.

They will mail him the denial by normal USPS and by certified mail. And even if he never receives those, that is considered sufficient service from a regulatory and legal perspective.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

BasicMed:
Does this answer your question re: Basicmed or have I misunderstood it?

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I am wondering which specific regulation says that a person whose medical certificate has been denied cannot subsequently operate an aircraft under 61.53(b), those operations which do not normally require a medical certificate. I think Basic Med is a different case and I should not have mentioned it.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

For BasicMed, in addition to the reg that TCABM cited, 61.23(c)(3)(ii) applies:

Thank you for a very precise set of answers which clarify the issue nicely, as noted by @Lindberg as well.

I may integrate these as well into a new FAQ item.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

And if you take regular mail to the post office, you will often get a receipt with a tracking number for each piece they entered into the system.

In any case, the denial being mailed via normal mail and certified mail (even if never signed for by the recipient) is considered proof of service for regulatory and legal purposes.