Class 3 / Third-Class Medical Certificate

The FAA Third-Class medical certificate, defined in 14 CFR Part 67 Subpart D, is the minimum standard for exercising Private Pilot, Recreational Pilot, and Student Pilot privileges. Validity is 60 calendar months for holders under 40 at the time of examination, and 24 calendar months for holders 40 and over. The examination is the least demanding of the three FAA classes — no ECG at any age, less stringent visual standards (correctable to 20/40 distant, 20/40 near at age 50+), and a relaxed cardiovascular standard relative to Second- and First-Class.

A Third-Class medical can only be issued by an FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME), and the examination is the same regardless of whether the applicant is initial-issue, renewal, or returning after a lapse. Failed Third-Class medicals — typically for cardiovascular, diabetic, or psychiatric conditions — can sometimes be addressed through Special Issuance Authorization, where the FAA issues a time-limited medical with conditions that can include monitoring requirements, restrictions, and renewal reviews shorter than the standard validity.

BasicMed under 14 CFR Part 68 was introduced specifically to provide an alternative path for pilots who once held a regular FAA medical certificate after July 14, 2006 — allowing those pilots to continue exercising private pilot privileges (within BasicMed's aircraft, weight, passenger, and operational limits) without holding a current Third-Class medical. BasicMed is not a downgraded medical; it is a parallel regime with its own four-year physician examination and two-year online course requirements. Student pilots cannot use BasicMed because they have no prior medical to qualify them.

The EASA system has no formal "Class 3" for pilots — the term "Class 3" within EASA refers to the medical for air traffic controllers under Part-MED Subpart C. Pilot private privileges under EASA fall under Class 2 (PPL) or LAPL Medical (LAPL holders). A pilot crossing between FAA and EASA systems should not assume any direct mapping between FAA Third-Class and any specific EASA category — the FAA Third-Class is most closely analogous in scope of privilege to EASA Class 2 supporting PPL, but the examinations and validity rules differ.

For flight schools running PPL training under FAA rules, the Third-Class medical (or BasicMed for returning pilots) is the gating prerequisite for student pilot solo and for the eventual private pilot certificate. The 60-month / 24-month split at age 40 is one of the most commonly mis-tracked items in club rental fleets — a member whose Third-Class was issued at 39 has 60 months of validity calculated from the examination date, but the same examination at 40 collapses to 24 months. Manual tracking based on "my medical is good for five years" produces silent expiry the day the pilot turns 40 if the medical was issued within the prior 24 months.

For schools rentin aircraft to private renters and members, the validation requirement is straightforward in concept and brittle in practice — verify a current Third-Class or BasicMed at every booking. Brittle in practice because the dispatcher checks the date once during onboarding and rarely re-checks it in subsequent years.

Aviatize tracks each pilot's medical class, the class supports (PPL/Recreational/Student), the issue date, and the binding expiry calculated from the age-band rule that applies. A renter whose Third-Class was issued at 39 sees validity through 60 months from issue; a renter whose Third-Class was issued at 41 sees validity through 24 months — the platform handles the calculation automatically, and the binding expiry is the date the validation engine compares against at booking time.

For BasicMed-eligible pilots, Aviatize tracks the parallel BasicMed cycle (CMEC every 4 years, online course every 2 years) and uses the earlier of the two as the binding BasicMed expiry. The validation engine refuses any booking on an aircraft above BasicMed's weight or seat limits when the pilot is operating under BasicMed, and refuses any booking where the binding medical expiry has passed — replacing dispatcher recall with system enforcement at the moment of booking.