Currently, National Guard (NG) and Air National Guard (ANG) pilots on active flight status are required to pass an annual service approved military flight physical. This includes medical assessment that qualifies the pilot to fully operate their assigned aircraft through all phases of military flight with or without medical restrictions or waivers.

As it pertains to current Drill Status Guardsman (DSG) NG and ANG pilots who currently have civilian commercial aviation jobs, they are currently required to pass either one or two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved civilian medical exams each year, depending on age. An FAA class 1 medical (required to operate aircraft for Part 121 airline operations or other 121 operations); require one medical exam per year if under 40 years old, and two medical exams per year if 40 years old and above; one of which must include an Electrocardiogram (EKG) test.

Since the NG and ANG have a preponderance of DSG pilots, with many of the experienced aviators being 40 years old or more, these pilots are now subject to three aviation flight physicals every year.

This effort proposes to eliminate one of the required FAA Class 1 annual medicals each year if a pilot meets the following criteria that sufficiently mitigate any risk:

-Be at or older than 40 years and subject to the 6-month FAA Class-1 medical requirement for civilian full-time employment
-Be on active flight status as a DSG in the NG or ANG.
-Be able to pass the required military flight physical without disqualifying FAA flight physical items.
-Complete 1 (instead of 2), FAA Class 1 flight physical that includes the EKG requirement.
-Upon release from military flight status, the member immediately reverts to the full FAA requirement.

Three aviation medicals per year is overly excessive and inefficient for our military/civilian pilots. This takes extra time, money, and uses limited medical resources that are not needed to determine the safe operation of aircraft in accordance with military and civilian flight rules. As to the concern, that this will negate profits for FAA flight physicians who charge hundreds of dollars for each physical, the impact would be negligible based on the tens-of-thousands of other civilian pilots who require full FAA medical certification. Additionally, this effort between the NG/ANG and FAA would free very limited FAA medical resources to better serve the rest of the professional pilot community.

This is a great opportunity to find efficiency between military and civilian organizations where similar efforts have been successful for our citizen soldiers and airmen. It is imperative for our country and the NG/ANG to retain talented pilots, and this small effort can go a long way to helping achieve a simple and cost-free benefit with zero risk.

It is requested that NGAUS engage with the FAA to seek alleviation of the medical requirement based on the conditions above. This effort would benefit every NG and ANG aviation unit.