Available articles
Aeronautical medical examination
Class 1, class 2 and LAPL: validities, costs, procedures and authorities in Belgium, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The ultralight regime is treated separately.
Read the articlePreparing for your medical
The checklist before the big day: documents to bring, what can skew blood pressure and ECG, the "white coat" effect, and the golden rule: the AME is an ally.
Read the articleWhat the medical examines, station by station
Vision, hearing, heart, blood pressure, history, tests: what is measured at each station and the public thresholds. No self-diagnosis of "fit / unfit": the decision remains with the AME.
Read the articleMental health & psychological component
Psychological testing, depression, anxiety: what the medical really looks at on the psychological side, and why honesty protects. No diagnosis or prognosis: the decision remains with the AME.
Read the articleWhere to take your initial class 1
Approved centers (AeMC), delays and costs by country, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain. And the real question: should you take it elsewhere?
Read the articlePilot hearing
Cockpit noise and its effects on the ear, the role of the ear as a pressure sensor, and protection: passive, earplugs and ANR headsets.
Read the articleDecoding your audiogram
The two axes of the graph, what decibel thresholds really measure, and the difference between clinical normality and fitness threshold.
Read the articleHypoxia & carbon monoxide
Two dangers you don't see coming: why hypoxia fools judgment before anything else, and why an oximeter doesn't detect CO.
Read the articleHypertension, diabetes & fitness
What the European regulation really says about blood pressure and diabetes: the only numbers that appear in the text, and those that do not.
Read the articleMedical unfitness: appeals and procedures
Declared unfit? What the authority really does, the referral that pilots underestimate, and the appeal delays in Belgium, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
Read the articleDiving and flying
How long to wait between a dive and a flight? 12h, 18h or 24h: decompression physiology and DAN/UHMS benchmarks, explained from inside the hyperbaric chamber.
Read the articleDaltonisme et vision des couleurs
Le test d'Ishihara, ce qui se passe si on le rate, et pourquoi la classe 1 et la classe 2 ne suivent pas le même circuit. Avec les idées fausses les plus répandues, corrigées au texte.
Lire le dossierLunettes du pilote
Correction visuelle et codes portes sur le certificat : ce que le règlement autorise, la paire de secours, et ce que l'examinateur vérifie au poste visuel.
Lire le dossier
The pilot's perspective
Before aviation, I was a nurse, for several years at the CHUV in Lausanne, in cardiology, intermediate care, emergencies and the hyperbaric chamber. This dual role makes me approach aviation medicine not as administrative paperwork, but with the eye of a former healthcare professional: the articles in this section cross the regulatory requirements of aviation authorities with a concrete understanding of flight physiology.
Pilot and former healthcare professional, not a doctor: this content informs, it does not provide any diagnosis.
Health also involves the right equipment
Protecting your hearing with a good ANR headset matters as much as a healthy lifestyle.
Protecting your hearingWhat is open access, and what is in the guide
I might as well tell you frankly rather than have you find out along the way. This site will remain open access, and for many readers it is enough: it explains what the regulation provides and what the medical examines. What it does not do is tell you what to do, week by week, in the three months preceding your appointment, nor how to build a file when a point is a sticking point. That is where the guide begins.
On the site, open access
- What the European regulation provides, article by article, with its references, so you can verify it yourself
- The most widespread misconceptions, corrected by the text
- What the medical examines, in broad terms
- The preparation checklist in PDF, offered upon subscription to the newsletter
In summary: enough to understand. You will know what exists, and why. You will not know what to do on your side, or when.
In the guide: €59
- A dated timeline, from D-90 to the morning of the exam: four stages, with what is decided, what is requested and what is locked in at each one. Nothing like this is published on this site.
- The exam stations, one by one, covering almost half of the guide. Each in the same format: what the examiner looks at, avoidable errors, and the question to ask beforehand. The site gives the broad outlines, the guide gives the procedure.
- Six complicating situations, reviewed one by one: a banal medical history, an ongoing treatment, eye surgery, high blood pressure discovered on the same day, sleep apnea, diabetes. Chapter reviewed by two approved aeromedical examiners.
- If things go wrong: the five-step procedure, the appeal deadlines in your country, the calendar reminders to set upon notification, and the standard letter to request your medical file.
- The annex for your country: who examines, where, which forms, observed costs, which path in case of referral. Reviewed four times a year, yours for twelve months.
- Tools to print and take with you: tear-out checklists, and the question sheet to pull out during the consultation.
In summary: enough to execute. 122 to 125 pages, the edition for your country, your copy in your name.
No fitness prognosis, no medical advice, no trick to hide anything. A preparation document, and it says so itself.
The Labo du Pilote newsletter
An in-depth article in each issue. Verified against the official text, written by an airline pilot who was also a healthcare professional.
Welcome gift: the medical preparation checklist, in PDF.