The visit is of no consequence, only the diagnosis
You may very well be right, it’s not a problem I’ve faced in practice. But I would be very reluctant to give the FAA any reason at all to go to a deferral, if it can possibly be avoided.
But I would be very reluctant to give the FAA any reason at all to go to a deferral, if it can possibly be avoided.
Agreed 100% – I recently went on BasicMed purely because the less data on me the FAA has the better, and because it imposes no issues or limitations on my flying. I can go back in ‘the system’ later if I want to do so.
Silvaire wrote:
There is not, not least because automotive driver licensing is done by individual states and FAA is Federal. It is instead mandatorily declared by the pilot himself on his FAA Medical application.
Not fully correct. There is something called the National Driver Register (NDR) and by applying for a medical you authorize the FAA to check that. The NDR contains information about DUI incidents.
There is something called the National Driver Register (NDR) and by applying for a medical you authorize the FAA to check that. The NDR contains information about DUI incidents.
The records consistently maintained on the NDR are name, date of birth, gender, state driver license number, and reporting state. I understand Federal social security number (SSN) is not a consistent part of the NDR record, and in any case pilots are not mandated to provide their SSN to FAA (it is optional). Also, many US state driver registries (e.g. California) don’t require DMV record updates when you move home address, so that isn’t tracked by the NDR, and I don’t believe FAA has your driver’s license number either – all of which combined was the underpinning of my point about there being no common database or ID number.
FAA can check the NDR regardless and try to establish a match, but given the issues above I think it would be in the course of an in depth investigation (and certainly not anything like “an automatic notification from the US driving body to the FAA”). It would be interesting to know whether FAA can legitimately request your state driver’s license number from you under some circumstance, closing the gap.
I think FAA validating that Airman John Smith, born on a given date, is a match with one of the John Smiths also born on that date who has a drunk driving conviction might be tricky without him entering it into his own medical application, and is not routine.
Does any other country have the system where speeding and parking offences can stop you flying?
I think most will stop you flying if you get banned from driving for drinking – unless you don’t disclose it to the AME but that is a different topic.
Peter wrote:
Does any other country have the system where speeding and parking offences can stop you flying?I think most will stop you flying if you get banned from driving for drinking – unless you don’t disclose it to the AME but that is a different topic.
EASA is pretty clear on this IMO. There is no background check to obtain EASA FCL, and your legal “status” is nothing an AME or the medical aviation establishment is concerned with. I remember after 9/11 when airport started with security. At first (for several years) we could simply show our pilot licenses. That stopped at some point, and the reason was the lack of background check, and proper ID cards were needed.
Also, a self declaration is definitely no substitute for a normal background check (in a legal sense).
I think most will stop you flying if you get banned from driving for drinking
There’s no such mechanism in Croatia, nobody will cross check whether you have a flying license when get banned from driving.
The mechanism would normally be a question on the AME medical form, like: do you have any history of alcohol abuse? In some cases they ask specifically about a driving prosecution for alcohol over the limit.
If you answer NO, whether they are going to find out is a different topic 
In the vast majority of cases they won’t, but that is how the whole aviation medical system works.
Peter wrote:
In some cases they ask specifically about a driving prosecution for alcohol over the limit.
Where? (except that FAA from).
A history of alcohol/drug abuse is a medical issue. A history with convictions is a legal issue. They are not related, and if they are, it’s circumstantially at best.
I went to look re my previous assertion that a drink-banned driver cannot fly.
I looked at the Cellma declaration which one fills in before visiting the AME. Nothing on there!
So far you are right, CAP_2159 does not mention anything to do with driving.
Then you have fitness of character. Discussed previously here.
That could certainly be used. But is it?
It is possible that the CAA (which definitely used to prohibit that) had to give up doing so when EASA Part-MED came in. Obviously such a change would not be publicised 
Another angle is that to fly on the Pilot Med Declaration you need to be able to legally drive a car, and if you are banned from driving then presumably you can’t do that.
