Special Issuance Renewal

[Chris Charanza]

Does anyone know about how far in advance I need to submit my paperwork for my special issuance to be renewed? I have to submit a status letter from my physician stating my anxiety is still well controlled (without any medication) and I need to submit my CPAP data along with the sleep apnea status report from my sleep doctor. I'll only have 9 months of CPAP data at the end of this month because I didn't start CPAP therapy until May of last year and my Special issuance got here in August with it being dated back to March when I did my initial exam. I'm just curious if that's something I need to go ahead and submit now or wait until around March 1? I just don't want a FAA delay to cause my current SI to expire (although I know I could just go Basic Med which I plan on doing next year when my actual medical expires)

 

[lbfjrmd]

the instructions as to when are in your SI letter from the FAA.

 

[Chris Charanza]

the instructions as to when are in your SI letter from the FAA.

I don't have it in front of me at the moment but I thought it was 30 days. I guess I'm just paranoid that 30 days isn't enough considering how long they tend to take on things but I do suppose this is a pretty black and white thing so maybe it doesn't take as long.

 

[dbahn]

Usually a renewal is a straightforward process. I did one of mine in two days through the Regional Flight Surgeon. The key is to read the letter carefully and provide exactly what they ask for - no more and no less, either of which has the potential to delay the process. You might be wise to "coach" your physician in how to write his letter. Again, that's usually outlined in the SI letter as to what they need.

 

[AggieMike88]

You might be wise to "coach" your physician in how to write his letter.

Very much yes to this.

My method is to supply an example template of what exactly needs to be written and have blanks for any values that need inputting (like test results, or BP readings).

So far so good. Each round, the office admin pulls up the prior letter, changes the date, inserts the new data.

My AME evidently likes my method. More than once he has commented he wished more of his pilots would make his job this easy.

 

[dbahn]

I've actually written the letter in Word and my doctor reviews it, copies and pastes it onto his stationary, then signs it. I was happy to do that as the doc as long as I didn't disagree with any of the letter's context.

The big pitfall is for the doctor add something, omit something or add an erroneous fact, so even when it's an honest mistake having to get that unraveled with the FAA can be very time consuming and sometimes expensive.