I disappeared from the FAA Registry of Airmen

NoHeat

NoHeat

Final Approach
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Iowa City, IA
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Yesterday I finished updating my Basic Med record at AOPA, after taking the course two days earlier, then visiting the doctor yesterday and finally submitting to AOPA.

After all that, AOPA's website told me this:
Course Completion Required by: Nov 2023
Last course completion: 11/15/2021
Last submission to FAA: 11/17/2021

So just to be sure, I checked the FAA Airman search, after searching for my name, expecting to see my new dates. But hey, I'm no longer there! My uncle is still listed there, despite being deceased for quite a few years, but I'm not.

So I'm wondering what happened. Does updating BasicMed info cause you to vanish even better than dying?
 
New Premium Subscription feature.... BasicStealth
 
That’s what I’d consider keeping a low profile with the FAA - a good thing IMHO.

Flying beneath the radar so to speak.
 
I wish. I've been trying to get the FAA to stop illegally disseminating my information to the general public. Basic Med hasn't changed that.

I suspect you're just failing to search properly. If you told them to block your address, then do not put any part of an address in to search or you won't match.

It's criminal the FAA refuses to obey the law and allow pilots to opt out of having their sensitive information exposed (and they don't have authorization to release medical information).
 
The database isn't always accurate anyway. I took the Mayo Clinic BasicMed course but the FAA database doesn't show it. I asked AOPA if this is a problem and they said that as long as I have the certificate it's fine. There's no requirement for me to tell the FAA about it, just to keep the certificate in my logbook (61.113(i)(3)).
 
Yeah, just looked up me...was suprised they had my basic med info in there....and the "issue date" was years more recent than my most recent address change re-issue...and is SIGNIFICANTLY off of the real issue date. I can't imagine where that non-sense came from....
 
I requested to opt out of the database search, and thus do not show up.
 
Bill said:
I requested to opt out of the database search, and thus do not show up.
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You can only opt out of releasing your address. You likely still show up in the database search. Just make sure you don't have a country selected when you search and you'll still show up.
 
Bill said:
I requested to opt out of the database search, and thus do not show up.
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I have done so countless times and am still there. When I inquire, I'm told they only allow opt out of email address.
 
pdonahue said:
The database isn't accurate...
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FTFY

For example many months ago, when planning to buy my airplane, I reserved a "new" registration number on-line.
I was billed for that reservation in nano-seconds.
A few weeks later I received by mail a letter confirming my reservation of the "new" number for 365 days from the date reserved.
The seller's retention of the "old" number was included in the sales contract, and a copy was submitted with all other required paperwork to the FAA at closing.
Eventually a paper 8050-64 form was received by mail, properly filled out, and returned.
A new airworthiness certificate was received by mail from the FAA with my "new" registration number on it.
--Maybe there is just a "tape delay," but months later...
In the database I am not shown as "holding" the new number I have a mailed confirmation of having reserved from last August to next August.
The aircraft still shows up in the FAA database under the previous number and previous owner, in spite of having received a new A/C.
 
flyingron said:
I suspect you're just failing to search properly. If you told them to block your address, then do not put any part of an address in to search or you won't match.
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Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

I had entered my name, along with -- and this was the problem -- selecting USA in the address pull-down, when I searched for myself. Following Ron's suggestion, I tried not selecting USA, but just leaving the country blank, and suddenly I showed up! I'm an Airman again.

Indeed, as Ron had guessed, I had requested that the FAA block my address -- the public FAA Airmen record for me includes a line, in red: "Airman opted-out of releasing address."

So the premise of this thread is all wrong. My disappearance had nothing at all to do with doing a Basic Med update -- it was just user error on my part. My bad!

By the way, including something in the address like USA seems to filter out a whole lot of people nowadays when you do a search. This is something I didn't notice, when I used the FAA Airmen search in previous years. For example, if you enter just the uncommon last name Lindbergh and nothing else in the search, you get 20 hits including Charles, who like me somehow has the entry "Airman opted-out of releasing address" (how did he do that?) But if you add USA and repeat the search, Charles vanishes along with more than half of the others, leaving only seven Lindberghs who have left their addresses visible to the world.
 
flyingron said:
….
I suspect you're just failing to search properly. If you told them to block your address, then do not put any part of an address in to search or you won't match.
….
Click to expand...

Thus is the only part of Ron’s post that you need to read. It trips up many a person.
 
I've been fighting this for years. Now that I'm retired (though not idle), I might file a federal lawsuit. This is pretty cut and dried, the FAA is intentionally violating the privacy act.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
You can only opt out of releasing your address. You likely still show up in the database search. Just make sure you don't have a country selected when you search and you'll still show up.
Click to expand...

Ayup, there I be!
 
flyingron said:
I've been fighting this for years. Now that I'm retired (though not idle), I might file a federal lawsuit. This is pretty cut and dried, the FAA is intentionally violating the privacy act.
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And they've doubled down with ADSB. Good luck.
 
ADSB isn't a violation of the privacy act. The privacy act specifically covers information on INDIVIDUALS. Information on aircraft is a complete different issue.
 
flyingron said:
I've been fighting this for years. Now that I'm retired (though not idle), I might file a federal lawsuit. This is pretty cut and dried, the FAA is intentionally violating the privacy act.
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I agree with you and wish you luck.

But for me personally, having recently retired, windmill tilting is not how I wish to spend my retirement years.
 
I don't think privacy regulations as currently written help much if any. What we need is a global understanding that data about a person belongs to that person, and anyone in the world can have access to it, as long as they pay an agreed rental fee to the individual. Combine that with an understanding the corporations don't have protection against ex post facto laws, and we'd have a good pair. I figure that would mean Google would owe most of the people in the modern world $2 a day for 20 years. I won't hold my breath. It's not out of line compared to what they're making on it, though. I'd agree to settle now for $1, and agree not to join the class action later.
 
flyingron said:
ADSB isn't a violation of the privacy act. The privacy act specifically covers information on INDIVIDUALS. Information on aircraft is a complete different issue.
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One can go from a tail number to the owner's street address in 30 seconds without ever leaving the FAA website.
 
Domenick said:
One can go from a tail number to the owner's street address in 30 seconds without ever leaving the FAA website.
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Still not a Privacy Act violation. The act was developed because certain federal agencies were "keeping files" on individuals. The act puts restrictions on this. Information about aircraft (to include the address of the owning entity) isn't covered. Airman records very much are. A few decades back the FAA realized that the airman database was a violation and took it down. There was quite an uproar from the industry, including King Schools that the inability for them to raid the free database of pilots was "jeopardizing air safety." A limited exemption to the act was added to the AIR-21 FAA funding authorization. Unfortunately, the FAA has far exceeded what that exemption allows.
 
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