Answer: According to the FAA, “as long as the pilot meets the criteria to fly with BasicMed, they can use it, including on a check ride.”

• READ MORE: How to Find Your Best Ground School Fit

According to FAA Advisory Circular 68-1A, to meet the criteria for use of BasicMed, the pilot needs to hold a current and valid U.S. driver’s license, hold or have held a medical certificate issued by the FAA at any point after July 14, 2006, answer health questions on the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist (CMEC), receive a physical examination from any state-licensed physician, and have them  complete the CMEC. Be sure to keep the CMEC.

Finally, the pilot needs to take the BasicMed online medical education course. Keep the course completion document issued to you by the provider.

• READ MORE: Can the Owner of a Certified Airplane Do Their Own Maintenance?

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I first learned of Rocco from a video posted on a website called “Lucky Lab Rescue.” He looked like the lab mix he was reported to be. Tellingly, he had no “bio.” Usually dogs up for adoption have been fostered and their traits have been cataloged. “Needs lots of space to run” and “not good with children” are a couple of red flags. Rocco had none. He was cute, if a little “mouthy,” on the 20-second video, so my wife, Cathy, and I arranged to have him join a caravan of dogs being shipped from the Midwest to the good folks of New England. Apparently, there is a well-worn path for dogs abandoned at kill shelters to adoption facilities in the Northeast.

We have had excellent luck with labs and lab mixes. We knew Rocco first showed up in a kill shelter in Kentucky and was transferred to a veterinary technical school in Indiana. From the paperwork that accompanied him, we found that he had been used for students to practice putting him under anesthesia and drawing his blood. I’m thinking that might give a fellow an attitude.

It did. Surprisingly, his animosity is not toward humans but dogs. It took several surprise attacks against friends’ and neighborhood dogs before we learned to keep him separated from all canines. His vet hospital and human emergency department visit bills topped 10 grand before we got the picture. We spent similar amounts on dog training with the graduation certificates as proof.

“Why don’t you put him down?” We heard this a lot. There was one problem: We were falling in love. With the kids, grandkids, furnace repair guy, and the pest man, he was an enthusiastic lab love. Our vet said, “I will not put a dog down for dog aggression. Your job is to keep him safe.” That sealed it.

Rocco’s first flight and first airplane was in our 1980 Piper Cheyenne I. He acted like it was natural to scurry up the airstairs and to make himself comfortable in an empty seat. When that became uncomfortable, he’d come forward, put his front paws on the wing spar, and peer into the flight deck with a bemused expression. “Can’t this thing go any faster?” he seemed to say. He’d stare in hypnotic trance at the blinking reply light on the transponder.

It wasn’t long before we decided to buy a jet. Three years of Part 135 flying had finally taught me how, and I felt comfortable with single-pilot jet ops. We bought a Raytheon Premier 1. With its magnificent height, imposing airstairs, and lavish interior, not to mention Pro Line 21 avionics, I was in heaven.

Apparently, so was Rocco. It gradually dawned on us that perhaps this dog had been fibbing about his background. He climbed into the Premier and looked around as if to say, “This is all you got?” I wondered if he’d actually belonged to a family with a Gulfstream. We sent off his DNA to see if he was related to a Rockefeller, but no joy.

Still, he got awfully cozy awfully quickly, though he seemed to look askance at the ornate gold fixtures—not the kind of thing a well-bred dog would accept for haute couture.

• READ MORE: Rescue Dogs and Airplanes

When an errant pelican commuting at 4,500 feet dinged the wing, we sought the comfort of a Cessna Citation CJ1. Not quite as fast as the Premier, but never as maintenance needy, the airplane fit like a glove. Rocco claimed a seat, which we protected with a sheet. There was no question this was a smaller seat than the one to which he had been accustomed, but he took the indignity like a lab. He logged hundreds of trouble-free hours curled up in a ball and ready to party when he arrived.

Alas, my abilities as a dog aircraft provider atrophied with age, and we had to sell the CJ1 owing to insurance costs for “elderly” single-pilot jet ops. Looking to be “unleashed” myself from the aerospace medical boys and girls in Oklahoma City, I chose BasicMed. This led to a fine Beechcraft P-Baron.

And guess what? This is the most comfortable airplane for Rocco. He leaps easily into the back cabin, and the rear seats are so close together that he now effectively has a bench seat. This allows uninterrupted sleep for hours and hours. Rocco is good at this. It’s one of his finest skills. This is a good thing as his commute has become longer and regularly features a tech stop. At such interruptions, he parades around the FBO while Cathy and I keep an eye out for some unsuspecting fellow dog traveler.

We’d hate for him to have a rap sheet in another state. His countenance at the high-end FBOs could be best described as expectant. Just don’t let him spot a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar—the fur will fly. So far, so good, though—just a dog and his airplane in harmony.

This column first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Master of Airplanes: Rocco Is One Lucky Lab, Indeed appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For starters, I rounded up two airline friends for a lunch trip from Tampa International Airport (KTPA) to Sebring Regional Airport (KSEF) in Florida, a distance that is all of 71 nm. These minor trips are flown at 7,000 feet and barely afford enough time to set the power and pick up the AWOS. With a flurry of help from the right-seater, we fly an RNAV approach and land at KSEF. Lunch is good.

The lack of smooth professionalism is obvious to all concerned. Tellingly, our taxi out from the ramp at KSEF is interrupted by the line guy frantically waving one of our windshield sunscreens. How it escaped the airplane to land on the ramp, no one seems to know.

Our return trip to KTPA is uneventful, though, if you don’t count the fumbled hot start and crosswind landing. The avionics are new to me and a puzzle. The powerful Garmin GTN 750 is a bewildering suitcase full of capability—all wonderful, I am certain, but hidden behind a series of buttons and touchscreen icons. I find myself pummeling the “home” button like a man trying to make an office copier work.

Five days later comes the real test. With my wife, Cathy, and our dog, Rocco, in the back, I call upon good friend Tom deBrocke to “help” me get us to New Hampshire for the summer. Tom’s just the guy for this. He owns not one but two Aerostars, flies as an airline captain, and has bailed me out on numerous occasions, some of which are so embarrassing that I will refrain from detailing them for your amusement.

• READ MORE: Getting to Know That New-to-You Airplane

So it is that we take off at 10 a.m. from KTPA with intent to land at KGED (Delaware Coastal Airport) and show off the airplane to my eldest daughter and her family. It is immediately evident that this might be a challenge. The GTN 750 paints a sobering picture of thunderstorms strewn across the route. We climb slowly to FL 210 and begin to lean the engines. The POH shows true airspeeds of 220 knots and a fuel burn of 16 gallons an hour per side. With the pilot’s operating handbook open on Tom’s lap and our faces poised in rapt attention inches from the hard-to-read “Insight” engine gauges, we find that anything near peak TIT (turbine inlet temperature) is not attainable without the CHTs (cylinder head temperatures) exceeding the recommended limit. Reluctantly, we settle on fuel flow of 24 and 22 gph and leave the cowl flaps open, which the POH says will cost us 9 knots.

As our recognition of this fuel flow sinks in, the view out the window is not reassuring. The GTN 750’s Nexrad picture and the radar’s splotchy patterns of red and yellow are not confidence builders. We ask for and receive multiple deviations and begin to discuss landing elsewhere. Richmond, Virginia, comes to mind. The forecast calls for rain but good ceilings and visibilities. Though the wind is out of the northeast, we are given the RNAV 20 approach, which adds to our total time en route. Three hours and 37 minutes after takeoff, I’m slithering down the wet wing with visions of a broken leg or hip.

The airplane seems unconcerned with our difficulties, and with $1,238 (!) worth of avgas in her tanks, we set off again for our final destination, Lebanon Municipal Airport (KLEB) in New Hampshire. Our filed route is immediately deemed inappropriate by Washington Center, and another route is laboriously read to us. This would take us 50 miles offshore over the Atlantic Ocean. I’m not keen on this development in an unfamiliar airplane and instruct Tom to negotiate for an overland route. “You may have to go back to 5,000 feet,” says the exasperated controller. I’m pretty fed up too, I think, having just struggled up to FL 210. In the end, we get rerouted multiple times but not forced to descend. Cathy is not impressed with my route-entering skills on the Garmin GTN 750. “Who is flying the airplane while you’re entering all that stuff?” she asks. Rocco is asleep across two seats in the back.

At 4:55 p.m., just a short seven hours after our departure from Tampa, I make my first acceptable landing in the new airplane. The Baron has seen us through. Unhelpfully, I can’t get the last time I flew from Tampa to KLEB out of my mind. It took the CJ1 less than three hours at FL 410.

So goes the personal evolution of airplanes for this pilot. Fortune has been exceedingly kind to me. I started airplane ownership in 1972 while an Army captain based at Fort Knox, Kentucky. I bought a 1967 Beechcraft Musketeer sight unseen at a sealed bid auction and have owned one airplane or another almost continually ever since. Talk about rich!

A parade of Cessnas and Pipers followed until 2017 when I returned to the Beech fold with a Premier 1. That was an amazing airplane, but it was continually in maintenance until a bird strike put it out of its agony. The CJ1 came next and has just now given way to the P-Baron for the reasons mentioned.

It is possible this will be my last airplane. There are a lot worse ways to ride into the sunset than via a Beechcraft Baron. That said, if the new FAA authorization bill passes with an increased max takeoff weight increase for BasicMed, you might find me in another airplane. For now, though, I’ll be learning—and leaning—the P-Baron with inquisitiveness and gratefulness.

I’m not dead yet, people.

This column first appeared in the October 2023/Issue 942 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Learning (and Leaning) a New Airplane Is Always a Rich Experience appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The aviation insurance market hasn’t proven to be any more predictable than the world at large. One would expect rates to stabilize after five years of increases, but they are still going up. Similarly, underwriting criteria haven’t loosened and are still tightening in certain areas, such as war risk. This volatility is driven by largely unforeseen domestic and global factors. On a domestic level, inflation of parts and labor and stubborn supply chain issues continue to increase costs to settle hull claims. Also, attorney rates and litigation costs are rising, so insurers pay more even if they prevail in successful defense of their insureds. Globally, the market is facing billions of dollars of unexpected claims because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, followed closely by the $3 billion Boeing 737 Max claims saga. And to add insult to the injury of unpredictable outcomes, aircraft that were destroyed in the Sudanese conflict earlier in 2023 could result in another $250 million to $300 million of losses.

It’s worth reiterating that aviation premiums are collectively small on both a national and global scale, and aviation breaks the “law of large numbers,” a cardinal rule in actuarial science that predicts outcomes with reasonable accuracy if there are enough similar exposures to consider. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex underwriting process, we can demonstrate this concept with a simple coin-flip exercise.

We can predict the outcome of a standard coin flip will result in heads 50 percent of the time. Try flipping a coin 10 times and see if you get five heads. You probably won’t. Now try flipping a coin 100 times or even 500 times if you’re ambitious. I’m sure it will be much closer to a 50 percent outcome. With so few similar exposures in aviation insurance, we are the 10-coin-flip gamble of the insurance world, whereas on a relative basis boat insurance would be about 900 coin flips and auto insurance would be 10,000 coin flips.

You might be wondering what this all means for where aviation insurance is headed in the next two to three years, and we’ll address that. But first let me paint a picture of where we are today.

Piston Aircraft

The good news is insurance rates for pleasure and noncommercial, business-use piston aircraft—being further removed from international shock losses—have largely stabilized, and we are seeing increases in line with inflation. This is particularly the case for basic trainers and common models with many serial numbers in service. Factors that continue to pose an underwriting challenge include low-time pilots in high hull value and/or retractable gear aircraft, make/models with limited parts availability, experimental aircraft, and older multiengine pistons.

While pilots over 70 years of age will continue to face challenges finding options for new aircraft purchases, we find most underwriters willing to renew coverage for pilots who have demonstrated loyalty to the same insurer over many years, though liability limits may be lowered, and operations under BasicMed might be off the table. More underwriters are now willing to insure new aircraft purchases for pilots as old as 79 in basic, fixed-gear models such as a Piper PA-28, Cessna 172, or even a Cessna 182, especially if the pilots are high time and instrument rated.

Commercial operators flying piston aircraft, such as flight schools and charter companies, will likely face higher increases than non-commercial operators, but still lower than what we saw in 2020 through 2022, unless there has been notable claims activity. Unfortunately, commercial piston operators may still find few competitive options at renewal time because these accounts are manually rated. Insurers have not been immune to staff shortages that plague many industries, and underwriters need to prioritize what they work on because they often don’t have time to get through every submission on their desk. If you are unhappy with your incumbent insurer for some reason other than price and want to make a change, it helps if your broker communicates that sentiment to their underwriters because they are more likely to quote when they know there is a realistic chance to win an account.

Another positive sign we are seeing is that several new insurers are entering the piston/light aircraft market. It is too early to tell how competitive these new insurers will be and to what extent they will disrupt the market status quo, but an expansion of insurers is usually a sign of a hard insurance market about to turn the corner.

Turbine: Owner Flown

The owner-flown turbine segment, which includes turboprops and jets, continues to be a tough nut to crack. Because rates were so depressed for so long, and many insurers suffered high-dollar losses as a result of large hull values and liability limits, it’s taking longer for this sector to recover.

Increases here will generally be higher than inflation and may come with decreased liability limits, fewer ancillary coverages, and higher hull deductibles. But most insurers are still willing to renew existing accounts until pilots reach their mid-70s.

Pilots new to the turbine market need to be strategic about their transition plans. It helps to find an airplane that is as similar as possible to the one you’ve been flying. For example, a Cirrus SR22 to a SF50 Vision Jet, or a Piper Malibu to a Piper Meridian are the sort of transitions that are viewed favorably by underwriters if a pilot is instrument rated with at least 1,000 hours total time.

• READ MORE: OMG, Insurance!

With regard to training, I implore turbine transition pilots not to request “in-aircraft” initial or recurrent training for the first three years. I’ve already heard every possible justification for it and so have your underwriters. Nothing is going to change the fact that simulator training is the gold standard to insurers because of its thoroughness and standardization, and requesting a waiver early on in your turbine career may negatively bias how underwriters perceive your attention to risk management, safety, and training. High-time turbine pilots with substantial make/model time who are under 70 may be able to obtain approval for in-aircraft recurrent training if not annually, then at least in alternating years.

On the positive front, we can usually obtain an insurance solution for even the lowest time turbine transition pilots if they’re prepared to pay, able to accept basic liability limits, and willing to allow a mentor CFI to babysit them from the right seat for 50- to 100-plus hours. For example, we recently quoted a student pilot in a Cessna Caravan for a six-figure insurance premium and have written Cirrus Vision Jets for sub-400-hour pilots at around a $75,000 annual premium.

Turbine: Professionally Flown

Corporate or commercially operated turboprops and jets fall into a different and more favorable rating tier than owner-flown risks. Accounts with favorable loss history are generally seeing increases at least in line with inflation but less than owner-flown turbine accounts. War hull and liability coverages have doubled in many cases because of the aforementioned global conflicts, but these coverages are fortunately a small component of the total premium for domestic aircraft without significant international exposure.

Many commercial operators have seen flight activity pick up in recent years. While premiums aren’t normally rated or audited for annual hourly utilization, claims activity in the form of weather events, bird strikes, and hangar rash usually increase with utilization. We’re seeing the effects of this reflected in higher loss ratios and rate increases greater than average for commercial operators who are flying more.

There remains competition for and favorable treatment of “best-in-class” risks in the professionally flown turbine world. You can separate yourself from the rest by living and breathing a culture of risk management, pilot proficiency, and safety that goes far beyond an SMS program. Top accounts in this segment will proactively seek input from their insurer’s safety and loss control departments for improvement and select one or several underwriters to partner with to achieve a long-term, mutually profitable relationship for both insurer and insured.

Future Market

Now to predict the unpredictable, let’s circle back to my earlier exercise and flip another coin. I call heads, the market gets better, and tails the market gets worse. I can tell you with nearly 100 percent certainty that one of these two outcomes will be correct and also that we’ll be in for an interesting and unforeseen ride along the way.

This story first appeared in the September 2023/Issue 941 of FLYING’s print edition.

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Aeronautix, a small Missouri-based aviation engineering firm, has created an STC for seven-seat Piper PA-32 and PA-34 models that lets owners remove one seat to take advantage of medical certification reforms under BasicMed. Best of all for aircraft owners, the STC is free.

FAA regulations stipulate that aircraft flown by pilots under BasicMed can have a maximum of six seats. A number of PA-32 and PA-34 models are certified with seven seats but are otherwise BasicMed compliant. The STC restricts the airplanes to six seats so that owners can comply with BasicMed, which eliminates the need for pilots to visit an aviation medical examiner and obtain an FAA medical certificate.

Aeronautix originally charged $500 for the STC, but opted to offer the certification for free after AOPA introduced a similar STC for PA-32 models that went on sale for $99 to nonmembers and is free for members. The Aeronautix STC is less restrictive than the AOPA approval since it is an AML STC that applies to a longer list of Piper models, including the Cherokee Six, Lance, Saratoga and Seneca, and can be expanded in the future.

The post Aeronautix’s Free Basicmed STC appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A certification engineering firm has devised a solution for seven-place Piper PA-32 and PA-34 owners who are unable to comply with the six-place requirement under BasicMed to take advantage of the medical certification reforms – free of charge.

A full list of Piper aircraft that are covered by Aeronautix’s AML-STC is included on the company’s website. The STC is now being offered for free, no strings attached, and any operators who had originally purchased Aeronautix’s STC will be reimbursed as well. That information is also on the website.

Aeronautix, which specializes in developing Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) and Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMAs), said it created the Approved Model List Supplemental Type Certificate (AML-STC) limiting the two aircraft families to six seats and presented the information to AOPA in February hoping to get editorial coverage. Unbeknownst to Aeronautix, AOPA had been creating its own similar STC and began offering it free of charge to members and for $99 to non-members this week. That’s when Aeronautix decided to offer its Piper seat-mod STC for free. FAR 61.113 states that pilots flying under BasicMed are not allowed to operate aircraft that can carry more than six people.

BasicMed was passed in July 2016, and eliminates the need for pilots to obtain a third-class medical certificate to fly as long as the aircraft being operated meet the six-place requirement, and have a certified maximum takeoff weight 6,000 pounds or less, plus other considerations.

Company engineer Jonathan Adams described the modification on Aeronautix’s website. “By installing the Aeronautix BasicMed six-Place Occupancy Restriction STC your seven-place aircraft becomes a six-place aircraft and meets the requirements of BasicMed (14 CFR §61.113). Our STC requires any installed seventh seat be removed with no additional modification to any of the applicable aircraft,” he said.

The post Aeronautix Offers Free STC for Seven-Seat Piper Owners Looking to Fly Under BasicMed appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Private and recreational pilots can now access the new online Mayo Clinic BasicMed Course, a free education program for pilots pursuing medical qualification through FAA BasicMed that is an alternative to completing the course on AOPA’s website.

“We’re pleased to be able to provide this new option for pilots,” said Clayton Cowl, director of the Mayo Clinic BasicMed Course. “This course has been a culmination of efforts of many colleagues at Mayo dedicated to aviation safety. A wide range of medical experts across the organization as well as with input from experts with civil aviation medical associations across the country have contributed medical knowledge to help pilots recognize medical risks in an effort to keep them, and the passengers who they fly, safe.”

The online medical course is one part of the required steps for pilots seeking aeromedical qualification through the FAA BasicMed program launched last May. A pilot must first obtain a physical examination from a state-licensed physician, who must attest that the pilot is physically and mentally fit to fly.

The Mayo Clinic course, which takes about 90 minutes to complete, is separated into six modules that include conducting medical self-assessments, warning signs of serious medical conditions, mitigating medical risks, awareness of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, the importance of regular medical examinations, and details regarding requirements on pilots if a medical deficiency exists.

Once the course is completed and a passing score achieved, the pilots can print a certificate that they will retain in their logbooks. Certification information is transmitted to the FAA to confirm participation.

The post Mayo Clinic Launches BasicMed Online Course appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The newest update to Pilot Partner, the electronic pilot logbook, supports the FAA’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medical requirements with its FAA Medical Wizard questionnaire offering visual currency indicators, alerts, relevant checklists and document storage.

New regulations for BasicMed medical qualification, meanwhile, require pilots to keep their Aeromedical Course Certification and Medical Exam Checklist attached to their logbook. Pilot Partner answers this need by offering aviators an easy way to photograph their documents and attach them to their PP eLogbook.

“BasicMed is complicated and time consuming for a busy pilot to keep track of. I was relieved to find Pilot Partner keeps track of the dates, and alerts me when the next currency action is due,” said John Culp, a private pilot and PP customer. Culp recently began flying using the BasicMed qualification.

Not everyone finds the BasicMed requirement easy to understand, one more reason PP created the newest update. “I read about the other things that I had to do to fly under BasicMed and I had the overwhelming feeling that if I were doing this for real I would just go get an FAA medical because that would be less trouble,” said Richard Collins in Air Facts Journal.

In his On Course column in the July issue of Flying, Editor-in-Chief Stephen Pope recounts his BasicMed experience, writing that the qualification process from start to finish was quick, inexpensive and hassle-free.

The post Software Helps Pilots Navigate BasicMed Requirements appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

While the 2017 Grand Bahama Island Air Show is in the books, it doesn’t mean you can’t load up your plane and head down to the Bahamas for a tropical getaway. And now, that especially includes pilots enrolled in BasicMed, as the AOPA recently announced that the Bahamas has become the first international destination that accepts pilots flying under the FAA’s new medical certification.

“This is a huge win for the thousands of BasicMed pilots and we can’t thank the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority enough for their work and leadership,” said AOPA President Mark Baker. While AOPA is still working with officials in Canada and Mexico to open their borders and airspace for BasicMed pilots, the deal with the Bahamas is significant, as more than 30 percent of international GA flights land in the islands each year.

BasicMed was rolled out on May 1, after the FAA released an official BasicMed Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist that allowed GA pilots to determine if they qualify to fly without holding an FAA medical certificate. Thus far, pilot response to BasicMed has been positive, as more than 5,000 pilots have already enrolled, while AOPA believes the program will ultimately affect hundreds of thousands of pilots, including many who stopped flying because of concerns over their medical certificates.

To qualify for BasicMed, pilots must first have their physicians fill out the FAA checklist, and then they can complete the free AOPA online medical course. The completed exam checklist and the certificate of completion from the course must be kept with the pilot’s logbook. For more on BasicMed, check out our in-depth look from the April issue of Flying.

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