FAR Part 67 — Medical Standards and Certification

14 CFR Part 67 is the FAA's comprehensive medical standards regulation, organized into five subparts. Subpart A establishes general provisions and definitions. Subparts B, C, and D specify the medical standards for First-Class, Second-Class, and Third-Class certificates respectively, each structured identically across six system categories: eye (§§67.103/67.203/67.303), ear/nose/throat/equilibrium (§§67.105/67.205/67.305), mental (§§67.107/67.207/67.307), neurologic (§§67.109/67.209/67.309), cardiovascular (§§67.111/67.211/67.311), and general medical condition (§§67.113/67.213/67.313). Subpart E addresses certification procedures including Special Issuance authority and administrative requirements.

The scope of each class maps directly to pilot certificate privileges. A First-Class medical certificate is required for operations as Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) under Part 121, both as PIC and as SIC (where the SIC acts as required second in command in a Part 121 operation). The First-Class certificate must be current within 12 calendar months for operations requiring an ATP, and within 6 calendar months for PICs who have reached age 40. A Second-Class certificate authorizes commercial pilot privileges under 14 CFR Part 119 Part 135 operations and other commercial operations not requiring an ATP, and remains current for 12 calendar months for commercial operations, reverting to Third-Class privileges thereafter. A Third-Class certificate covers private pilot, recreational pilot, and student pilot privileges and is valid for 60 calendar months for pilots under age 40, or 24 calendar months for pilots age 40 and older.

The specific numeric thresholds in the First-Class subpart are the most stringent. §67.103(a) requires distance vision of 20/20 or better in each eye separately (with or without correction). Near vision must be 20/40 or better at 16 inches in each eye. Intermediate vision — an explicit First-Class-only requirement — must be 20/40 or better at 32 inches in each eye for pilots at or above age 50. The cardiovascular standard in §67.111(a) requires a resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (EKG) at the first application at or after age 35, and annually beginning at age 40. No other class has an EKG requirement embedded in the regulation; for Second-Class (§67.211) and Third-Class (§67.311), the AME relies on history and clinical evaluation without a mandatory EKG at specified ages. Blood pressure limits are not explicitly specified in Part 67's text — instead, FAA policy documents establish an upper screening threshold of 155/95 mmHg for certificate issuance purposes, though the regulatory catch-all at §§67.113/67.213/67.313 (general medical condition) allows denial for any condition that the FAA finds to make the person unable to perform pilot duties safely.

Color vision deficiency does not automatically disqualify an applicant, but it does generate an operational limitation unless the deficiency can be demonstrated as not operationally significant. Applicants who fail the standard color vision test (Pseudoisochromatic Plates or similar) may demonstrate acceptability using the Farnsworth Lantern (FALANT) test — a pass on the FALANT eliminates the limitation. Applicants who fail the FALANT are issued a medical certificate with a limitation restricting the use of color signals and color-coded charts and displays.

Subpart E certification procedures govern the process when standards are not met. §67.401 — Special Issuance — authorizes the FAA to issue a medical certificate to an applicant who does not meet the stated standards if the FAA determines, based on the totality of available information, that the person's operation of an aircraft will not be unsafe. Special Issuances can be Authorization for Special Issuance (AISI) letters authorizing the AME to issue the certificate under a specified protocol, or Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA) authorizations for stable defects. §67.403 addresses falsification: providing false information on a medical application (FAA Form 8500-8) is grounds for suspension or revocation of the certificate and any other certificate or rating held. §67.415 preserves the FAA's authority to review the medical history of any certificate holder at any time. BasicMed under 14 CFR Part 68, enacted effective May 1, 2017, provides an alternative path for pilots exercising private pilot privileges in aircraft with a maximum certificated takeoff weight not exceeding 6,000 pounds, carrying no more than 5 passengers, at altitudes below 18,000 feet MSL and below 250 knots IAS — these pilots do not need a current Part 67 medical certificate, but must have held an FAA medical certificate issued after July 14, 2006.

For flight schools, Part 67 medical certification creates two categories of operational risk: student enrollment risk and instructor currency risk. On the enrollment side, a student who begins training without a valid medical certificate — or who holds a Third-Class certificate that expires during the training syllabus — cannot legally exercise student pilot privileges. Under §61.23(a)(1), a student pilot must hold at least a Third-Class medical to act as PIC. Schools enrolling students in long-duration integrated programs (12–18 months for CPL/ATPL syllabi) must calendar the medical expiry at enrollment and flag when renewals are due. A student whose medical lapses mid-syllabus cannot fly solo, which stalls stage check progression and disrupts scheduling.

For flight instructors acting as PIC in aircraft providing instruction for hire, the applicable medical class depends on the operation. A CFI conducting Part 61 flight training in a private aircraft context and not serving as required crewmember for hire needs only a Third-Class medical (or BasicMed eligibility). A CFI operating under Part 135 as a required crewmember needs Second-Class currency. A DPE conducting checkrides is typically serving as PIC and must hold at least the class of medical appropriate to the operation. The interaction between 24- and 60-month Third-Class validity (age-dependent), 12-month Second-Class validity, and 6-month First-Class validity creates a matrix of expiry dates that is easy to lose track of across a large instructor cadre.

Aviatize's compliance and auditing module maintains a medical certificate record for every student and instructor in the system, capturing certificate class, issue date, examiner details, and the calculated expiry date using the age-appropriate validity periods from §67.3. As a certificate approaches expiry, automated alerts are generated — configurable thresholds such as 60 days and 30 days before expiry — directed to both the individual and the chief flight instructor. The booking engine cross-checks a student's medical currency before allowing a solo or solo cross-country booking to be confirmed, preventing inadvertent dispatch of a student whose certificate has lapsed without a staff member manually checking paper records.

For Special Issuance holders, the compliance tracking module supports custom authorization conditions: the system stores the AISI letter parameters (e.g., required annual cardiac workup, HbA1c testing for diabetic pilots) and generates reminders when the conditions require renewal documentation. When a student or instructor's medical record is updated following an AME visit, the new expiry date and any limitations are entered into the platform and immediately reflected across all future booking validations — ensuring the school operates from a single authoritative currency record rather than relying on individual self-reporting.