Designated Aviation
Medicine Examiner/Designated Aviation Ophthalmologist
DAME Newsletter
February 2006
Organisation
Dr Graham Edkins took up the position of Group General Manager Personnel Licensing Education and Training (PLET) on 12 December 05. An introduction to Graham will be included in the February newsletter.
One of Graham's priorities is to attend to the issues being raised about CASA's medical certification function.
PMO appointment
Graham Edkins sees the role of Principal Medical Officer (PMO) as critical to CASA and delivering its medical certification function effectively and efficiently. For that reason, Graham has decided to engage an agency to assist with a national and international executive search to ensure the most suitable person is recruited to manage this key responsibility. The process has already commenced.
If you know someone who is appropriately qualified and suitable to handle this challenging job, please let Graham know. You can contact Graham on 02 6217 1118 or through the free number 131 757 and ask for extension 1118.
The intention is to have the position filled by mid year.
Recent ICAO news
Frequency of medical examinations for pilots
Annex 1 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation was amended 24 November 2005 – a copy of the State Letter covering Amendment 166 will be sent to you separately.
The main impact the amendment has for Australian pilots relates to the frequency of medical examinations for ATPL pilots over 40. You will recall that pilots over 40 could only use their ATPL for 6 months. As you will see in the table below, the international standard has changed and comes more into line with the Australian standard. Certificated issued after 24 November do not include the condition previously imposed.
Summary of the period between medical examinations:
ICAO |
AUSTRALIA |
|---|---|
Class 1 <40yo 12 monthly |
Class 1 <60yo 12 monthly |
Class 1 >40yo single crew 6 monthly |
Class 1 >60yo ATPL 6 monthly |
Class 1 >40yo multicrew 12 monthly |
Class 1 >60yo CPL 12 monthly |
Class 2 <40yo 5 yearly |
Class 2 <40yo 4 yearly |
Class 2 >40yo 2 yearly |
Class 2 >40yo 2 yearly |
Unless there is a specific need for more regular surveillance, all ATPL pilots will now be required to have medicals at 12 monthly intervals, until they reach the age of 60 where CASA still requires 6 monthly medicals (under review).
A small number of pilots who are over 40, use a CASA CPL or ATPL and fly single pilot operations overseas, will still be required to have six-monthly medicals to satisfy ICAO requirements. An example of this is a pilot flying an Australian registered Kingair single pilot in another country on aeromedical evacuation or charter operations. It is up to the other country's rules as to whether the Australian standard is acceptable or not.
For Class 2 pilots (PPL and SPL holders) there will be no change in the near future to CASA requirements. It is proposed, however, that when the next amendment to the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations is released, the requirement for Class 2 holders less than the age of 40 will drop from 4 yearly to 5 yearly medicals.
For this and the other changes in the SARPS, CASA will consult with industry on an amendment to Part 67 and the guidance material in the DAME Handbook.
Age Restrictions
On 2 December 2004, ICAO reviewed a proposal to amend the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) related to the upper age limit for pilots in Annex 1. Up until now, the relevant ICAO standard (2.1.10.1) does not permit pilots 60 years of age or over to act as pilot in command in international air transport operations. The proposed amendment is for an increase of the upper age limit for an airline pilot-in-command from 60 to 65 years of age. The amendment was sent to contracting States and other international organisations for comments, and an applicability date of 23 November 2006 is proposed, as part of Amendment 167.
This is really of academic interest only for DAMEs, since CASA does not have an upper age limit stipulated for pilots. The one possible situation where the new rule may apply to Australian pilots is where an Australian pilot is flying international services. Previously, (for example when flying into the USA where the ‘age 60 rule' applied) pilots over the age of 60 could not operate in international air transport operations in that country (unless it was approved by the FAA). The new amendment may open up more international airspace to our more senior pilots. Having said that, individual contracting States may lodge differences to the ICAO standards. Watch this space all old and bold pilots!
MRS Online questionnaire
Many of you have offered feedback on the MRS Online medical questionnaire. We are finally moving ahead on reviewing the questionnaire with the plan to have it updated by mid year. Apart from the technical issues (eg email responses for delays, attachments etc.) the main issues seem to be:
- the questionnaire is too long and takes too much time to complete
- some questions are inadequate, inappropriate or unnecessary
- some information needs to be entered several times.
We are setting up a discussion forum, much the same as we have for consulting proposed regulations. The forum will be set up with space for each question and a section on general comments. After a reasonable period for DAMEs to have their say, we will consolidate the feedback and bring it forward to a workshop (date yet to be set).
We want to make the process transparent and give everyone a chance to participate. However, we want to draw closure on it so that we can get the questionnaire finalised without unnecessary delay.
I appreciate this has been a long time coming and apologise accordingly for the frustrations you have experienced with it so far.
DAME Handbook
At the last ASAM meeting on the Gold Coast, Dr James Ross sought feedback from DAMEs on the need for an index in the handbook. There was strong support for the proposal.
An index has now been developed and we will be applying it to the online document next month. This involves adding hyperlinks to the references within the handbook; a time consuming job.
More on the DAME Handbook in the next newsletter.
Fees
As you will be aware following previous email advisories, CASA now charges for receiving and processing medical certificate applications. The fees were made on 15 December 05 and came into effect on 1 January 06. Information on the cost recovery policy and the new fees can be found on CASA's website. CASA also charges $32.50 for providing a copy of a medical certificate (for example when a certificate is lost or destroyed).
CASA is not asking DAMEs to collect fees on its behalf. And the intention is not to burden DAMEs with additional work or administration.
Your help in advising pilots of the new requirement is appreciated. One way to assist the pilot and CASA getting the certificate issued without delay is to attach the pilot's payment to the medical report when you send it to CASA. Clearly this does not work for online medicals. Alternatively, you might be able to make sure the pilot is aware that there is a fee and suggest he/she contacts CASA to arrange payment. We receive cheques, payment by credit card (including over the phone) and fees can be paid through our local field offices.
Introductions
This month we are introducing Dr David Fitzgerald – David started recently as the new medical officer for CASA. Next month we will introduce Dr Graham Edkins, our new Group General Manager of the Personnel Licensing Education and Training Group.
Introducing Dr David Fitzgerald
Greetings to all fellow DAMEs. I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new medical officer at Aviation Medicine.
I hail from the main land mass of Australia called Tasmania, where I grew up on the North West Coast in Burnie. I had initially aspirations of becoming a commercial pilot and was studying towards my HSC when I went into hospital to have the second head removed. Whilst there I foolishly thought “hey this doctor stuff seems like a cool job” and I got sidetracked into seven years of medical school. That took 7 years with a year of research to get the BMedSci(Hons).
I was still dead keen on aviation and have been trying desperately to get back into flying since. I started lessons whilst in medical school, working 5 nights a week delivering pizzas to get my GFPT and nav exercises done. Having graduated from medicine I obtained my commercial pilots licence, did a tailwheel and aerobatics endorsement, retractable undercarriage and constant speed endorsement and a twin rating and most recently have obtained the command instrument rating. I am also a qualified dropmaster and observer for search and rescue operations. In the summer months I do some scenic flights and bushwalker drop-offs in South-West Tasmania.
On graduating from medical school I flirted with the idea of doing advanced training in emergency medicine, but soon got sick of that, and tried to find a way to merge my professional and personal interests by getting into aviation medicine. I completed Dave Newman's certificate of aviation medicine course at Monash and then moved to Hobart where there was need for a DAME. Just last year I completed the DipAvMed(Otago).
I work here in Canberra Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and on Thursdays and Fridays am back in Tasmania for the time being, where I am completing my fellowship in Occupational Medicine working at the Zinifex Zinc Smelter in Hobart. Once a month I get to fly an Aero Commander over to the West Coast to service the mines there which keeps my instrument rating and licence current. I also still run my DAME practice at Tasair but quarantine myself from assessing the cases as a CASA medical officer. I also keep my hand in more acute care medicine by working some night shifts at the Hobart Private Hospital. I also sit on the Social Security Appeals Tribunal once a fortnight. On weekends I do some medico-legal consulting, and occasionally I get to sleep.
My wife Rhonda is a psychiatric registrar and has taken up a job at the Canberra Hospital. I'm told I might need her professional services once I've been here for a while. I have many photographs of her so I remember what she looks like. We have no children yet as I'm worried they might look like me.
I'm enjoying the job here in Canberra. The aviation medicine team are a great team to work with and they all work very hard despite constraints with regards resources and computers crashing etc. I hope that my experiences as a DAME put me in a good position to appreciate where you are coming from, and I hope to be approachable and reasonable in balancing flight safety with the desire to keep as many pilots in the air as possible.
I'll save you from having to look at my face and I won't post a picture in this email (well we tried but all the CASA cameras kept breaking – I tried to tell them this sort of thing happens all the time…), but I look forward to meeting many of you in person at the ASAM annual conference and regional meetings around the place. This year's ASAM is in Launceston and I'm looking forward to showing people around my home state (even though Launceston is a bit of a ‘hole' – really – it's mostly in a valley). I'm having a suit of armour prepared for the CASA sessions at the meetings and I'm told it'll be ready in February.
Happy Flying!
David