Expert Opinion
AINsight: FAA Aeromedical Letters, Part 1
Not all letters from the FAA are bad. Many of the medical-related ones the agency sends are approvals after a condition has been reviewed.

Pilots receive medical-related letters from the FAA quite frequently. These typically come from the FAA Aerospace Medicine Certification division in Oklahoma City or the federal air surgeon office in Washington, D.C. Occasionally, letters will come from any one of a number of regional flight surgeon offices. 

This introductory discussion will give some background on why the FAA sends medical letters, and some of the good ones that pilots receive. Future discussions will explain the not-so-good letters (aka “nastygrams”) and how to deal with them effectively.

Robert Sancetta, M.D.
AIN Contributor
About the author

Dr. Robert Sancetta is a former DC-10 captain with 11,000 flight hours. He has worked as a Senior AME since 1993 and is appointed as AME Consultant to the FAA Federal Air Surgeon.

See more by this author