You sit there in the examining room, blinking your eyes in disbelief at what the doctor in the white coat just told you-even as the words reverberate in your ears. "I'm afraid that you do not meet the requirements for a third class medical certificate." For many pilots, the aviation medical examiner's words come as a surprise. Others don't expect to walk out of the AME's office with a fresh medical certificate in hand-likely the case for Malvern "Skip" Monaghan of Suwanee, Georgia, who received a heart transplant (see "Medically Speaking: Second Chance," page 88). Those words don't mean that your flying days are through. The vast majority of airmen are able to get back into the cockpit by getting a special issuance authorization-it's a discretionary issuance granted by the Federal Air Surgeon that usually comes with requirements for periodic interim medical reports, as well as time limitations on the duration of the certificate, explains Gary Crump, AOPA director of medical certification.
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