A growing number of aviation medical professionals are questioning pilots’ reliance on their required annual (or, in the case of first-class medicals, six-monthly) medical examinations as their primary source of personal health monitoring. Chief among them are Annette Ruge, M.D., Ph.D, medical coordinator for the European JAA, who has gone on record as saying that even though the JAA’s medical regulations are stringent (in many ways more stringent than the FAA’s), a flight physical by no means tells pilots everything they need to know.
In a recent study published by the Flight Safety Foundation, Ruge cautioned aviators that while the aftermath of a successful flight physical leaves them “fit to fly, there are some sicknesses that will not be detected in an aviation medical examination. There is a difference between regulatory medicine and health care that is the private obligation of the pilot.”
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