The condition is rarely what stops you. The paperwork is.

Which certificate you need, and how long it lasts

A medical certificate does not simply expire. It steps down. A first class certificate stops serving airline transport privileges after its first period but keeps working for lower privileges for the full lower term. The row that matters is the one for what you are actually doing.

Age is taken on the date of the examination, and a certificate runs to the end of the last day of the stated month. A pilot who has reached 60 and is a required flightcrew member in Part 121 operations holds a first class certificate for 6 months. Source: 14 CFR 61.23(a) and (d).

What the application asks, conviction questions included

The history section of the application is where the anxiety lives, so here is what is on it.

• Item 17.a, current medication. Whether you currently use any medication, prescription or not, and a list of what you take.
• Item 18, medical history. Headed Have you ever in your life been diagnosed with, had, or do you presently have any of the following? followed by conditions you answer yes or no to one by one, from headaches and vision through heart, diabetes, neurological and mental health, to admission to hospital and any other illness, disability or surgery.
• Item 18.v, driving convictions and administrative actions. Any conviction involving driving while intoxicated by, impaired by or under the influence of alcohol or a drug, and any conviction or administrative action that led to your driving privileges being denied, suspended, canceled or revoked, or to an educational or rehabilitation program.
• Item 18.w, nontraffic convictions. Worded History of nontraffic conviction(s)(misdemeanors or felonies).
• Item 19, visits to a health professional. Visits within the last 3 years to a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, psychologist, clinical social worker or substance abuse specialist.

“But my record was expunged.”

This is the question people arrive with more than any other, and it has a published answer. It is not in the AME Guide pages for Items 18.v and 18.w, which is why it is so often reported as unanswered. It is in the instructions attached to the application itself.

Under Item 18.v the FAA tells you, in its own words, that if a conviction has been reversed or vacated in a final judgment, state the date of the final judgment and the court that issued the final judgment, and that if the record of a conviction has been expunged, state the date that the record was expunged and the court that ordered the expunction.

The same instructions define the two words people most often read their own meaning into. Arrest is defined narrowly and only for the driving question: being detained or taken into custody by any law enforcement or military authority for any reason related to a driving stop for suspected driving while intoxicated by, while impaired by, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Conviction is defined broadly: any judgment of guilt based on a jury, court, or military verdict, a plea of guilty, or a plea of nolo contendere/no contest. A no contest plea is a conviction for this form. So is a plea you took precisely so that you would not have to admit anything.

Part 67 names no crime at all. Here is what it does name

If no crime is on a list, it is fair to ask what is. The standards sit in 14 CFR Part 67, and for a first class certificate the conditions named outright run across four sections. The whole of it is shorter than most people expect.

• Mental, 67.107. A personality disorder severe enough to have repeatedly manifested itself by overt acts; psychosis; bipolar disorder; substance dependence; and substance abuse within the preceding two years.
• Neurologic, 67.109. Epilepsy; a disturbance of consciousness without satisfactory medical explanation of the cause; a transient loss of control of nervous system function without satisfactory medical explanation of the cause.
• Cardiovascular, 67.111. Myocardial infarction; angina pectoris; coronary heart disease that has required treatment or, if untreated, has been symptomatic or clinically significant; cardiac valve replacement; permanent cardiac pacemaker implantation; heart replacement.
• General medical, 67.113. Diabetes mellitus requiring insulin or another hypoglycemic drug for control.

Two things keep that list from being the whole story

They pull in opposite directions. Each of the four sections closes with a judgment clause, letting the Federal Air Surgeon consider any other condition that would make a person unable to perform the duties safely, so an unlisted condition is weighed rather than ignored. And the harshest entry on the list carries its own way back: 67.107(a)(4) excepts established clinical evidence, satisfactory to the Federal Air Surgeon, of recovery, including sustained total abstinence from the substance(s) for not less than the preceding 2 years.

The airman certificate is a separate decision

It is decided separately from the medical, and the FAA answers that one in its own words: You can get a FAA certificate if you have a felony conviction, unless the conviction is for a drug or alcohol related offense. The machinery behind that sentence is 14 CFR 61.15(a), under which a drug conviction is grounds for denying an application for up to one year after the date of final conviction, or for suspending or revoking a certificate already held. Passing the medical and holding a pilot certificate are two different determinations, and clearing one does not decide the other.

Airport access is a third gate, and it belongs to the TSA

Clearing the medical is one gate. Holding the pilot certificate is a second. There is a third. It belongs to the TSA rather than the FAA, and it is the one that catches people who have cleared the other two. Most airline flying needs unescorted access to the secure areas of an airport, and that access requires a fingerprint based criminal history records check under 49 CFR 1542.209. Paragraph (d) of that section lists the convictions that disqualify, and the list is nothing like Part 67.

How the ten years are counted

Read the window carefully, because it is not measured from where people assume. The rule reaches a person convicted, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, of a listed crime during the 10 years before the date of the individual’s application for unescorted access authority, or while the individual has unescorted access authority. It runs backward from the day you apply for the access. Not from your release, and not from the end of probation.

So there is a real ten year period in federal law, and it is worth saying plainly what it is not. People hear “ten years” and assume it is a waiting period before they may become a pilot. It is not. It is the lookback for this one access, it reaches only the listed offenses, and it is counted back from the day you apply.

What is on the list, and what is not

The list runs to 28 categories, and it falls into three groups.

• Aviation specific federal offenses. Aircraft piracy, interference with a flight crew, carrying a weapon aboard an aircraft and the rest of the aviation security offenses.
• Serious violent and property crimes. Murder, assault with intent to murder, kidnapping or hostage taking, rape or aggravated sexual abuse, extortion, armed or felony unarmed robbery, felony arson, distribution of a controlled substance and a felony involving a threat.
• Felonies involving dishonesty or destruction. A felony involving burglary, theft, dishonesty, fraud or misrepresentation, possession or distribution of stolen property, aggravated assault, bribery or willful destruction of property.

Two absences are worth noticing as much as the entries. An ordinary DUI is not on this list. Neither is simple misdemeanor assault. Both can matter a great deal elsewhere, a DUI especially, but neither is a listed disqualifier for unescorted access.

The airline has its own copy of the same rule

The same test appears twice over, which is worth knowing before anyone plans around it. 49 CFR 1542.209 is the airport operator’s rule. 49 CFR 1544.229 is the airline’s own, covering unescorted access together with the authority to perform screening functions and checked baggage or cargo functions, and it carries the same ten year window, counted from the application for that authority, against the same 28 categories. Being employed by the airline rather than the airport does not route around it.

If the record is wrong, you can correct it

Now the part of that rule nobody quotes, which is the part that helps you. Criminal records are frequently incomplete, and the usual gap is an arrest recorded with no disposition after it, so the file shows the charge but not the dismissal. The regulation addresses that directly. Where the check discloses an arrest for a listed offense without indicating a disposition, the airport operator must determine, after investigation, that the arrest did not result in a disqualifying offense before granting access. And the rule then says it outright: If there is no disposition, or if the disposition did not result in a conviction or in a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity of one of the listed offenses, the individual is not disqualified under this section.

You also have two rights here, and one of them runs on a clock. Before making a final decision to deny access, the operator must tell you the FBI record contains disqualifying information and provide the individual with a copy of the FBI record if he or she requests it. Ask for it. Then, within 30 days of being advised, the individual must notify the airport operator in writing of his or her intent to correct any information he or she believes to be inaccurate. The operator must then obtain the revised FBI record, or a certified true copy of the information from the appropriate court, before granting access. Let the 30 days pass without that written notice and the operator may make a final determination to deny.

The seven year rule people repeat is not federal law

One more belief worth correcting while we are here. People are told constantly that convictions stop appearing after seven years. Federal law does not say that. The Fair Credit Reporting Act does limit how long some adverse information may be reported, but 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(5) expressly carves out records of convictions of crimes from that seven year limit, and under 1681c(b) the limits do not apply at all to a report used for employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more. State law may add its own restrictions. Federal law does not supply the seven years.

What happens if you leave something out

14 CFR 67.403 draws a line that is rarely explained, and the difference between its two halves is the difference between a setback and the end of a career.

• An incorrect statement the FAA relied on. Paragraph (c) makes this grounds to suspend or revoke the medical certificate, withdraw an Authorization or Statement of Demonstrated Ability, or deny the application. It does not reach your airman certificates.
• A fraudulent or intentionally false statement. Paragraph (b) makes this grounds to suspend or revoke all airman, ground instructor, and medical certificates and ratings held by that person, to withdraw every Authorization and SODA, and to deny all pending and future applications.

The 60 day report people miss entirely

14 CFR 61.15 runs on its own, whether or not you are applying for anything. After a motor vehicle action you must send a written report to the FAA Civil Aviation Security Division in Oklahoma City not later than 60 days after it.

The report has to carry five things:

• Your name, address, date of birth and certificate number
• The type of violation or conviction
• The date of the action
• The state that holds the record
• Whether it arose from the same incident as anything you reported before

Two things catch people here

• A motor vehicle action is not only a conviction. An administrative suspension, revocation or denial of your driver’s license for an alcohol or drug related cause counts even if you were never convicted of anything.
• Failing to send the report is its own violation. It is separate grounds for denial, suspension or revocation, independent of whatever the underlying action was.

One night can produce two reportable actions

A single arrest often produces two: the administrative suspension of the license first, and the conviction later. That is why the fifth item above exists. It asks whether this action arose from the same incident as one you already reported, which only matters if the FAA expects to receive two.

It matters for a second reason. Under 61.15(d), a motor vehicle action that happens within three years of a previous one, where the two did not arise from the same incident, is on its own grounds for denial for up to a year or for suspension or revocation. So the question is not bookkeeping. It decides whether the FAA is looking at one event or at a pattern.

Refusing the test is not a way around it

Under 14 CFR 61.16, refusing a blood or breath alcohol test requested by a law enforcement officer under 91.17(c), or refusing to furnish or authorize release of the results to the Administrator, is by itself grounds for denial for up to a year or for suspension or revocation.

What happens at the appointment, and the one line to read twice

You fill the application in online through MedXPress before you go. The FAA’s own guidance is that it will remain active for 60 days and disappears from the system if your examiner has not uploaded it within that time.

Which is the real argument for getting your questions answered before the application is imported rather than after. If you are unsure whether you have the documentation a condition needs, that uncertainty is cheap to resolve beforehand and expensive afterward.

The other seven rights are worth knowing too, because first time applicants often do not realize they have them. You may receive the examination with respect and recognition of your dignity. You may select an examiner of your choice, so long as they hold the required designations. You must be advised of any conflict of interest the examiner may have that could affect the determination. You may request a chaperone or bring a trusted companion. You have privacy when changing, undressing and using the restroom. You may ask questions about the FAA medical standards and how they apply to your own health. And you are assured of privacy and confidentiality within the requirements of public and flying safety.

When a condition needs documenting, there are published routes

A condition that does not meet the standard is not automatically the end of it. 14 CFR 67.401 sets out two of them.

• Authorization for Special Issuance. The Federal Air Surgeon may grant one to a person who does not meet the standards, where the applicant shows that the duties of the certificate can be performed without endangering public safety. It is granted for a specified period, so it is renewed by making that showing again, and it can be withdrawn if the condition changes or required information is not provided.
• Statement of Demonstrated Ability. A SODA is for a condition that is static or nonprogressive. Unlike an Authorization it does not expire, and it lets an examiner issue the certificate directly for as long as the condition has not changed for the worse.

This is why documentation is the whole game. Walking in with current specialist letters, test results and a clear account of your own history gives the examiner something to work from. Walking in with the disclosure and nothing else is what turns a routine appointment into a deferral and a long wait.

Conditions you can be issued with on the day

This is the part of the process that ought to be better known, because it is the good news. What applicants dread is the deferral: the examiner cannot issue, your file goes to the FAA and you wait. The FAA publishes a list of conditions that are built to avoid exactly that. It is called CACI, for Conditions AMEs Can Issue. For each one there is a published worksheet, and where you meet that worksheet and are otherwise qualified your examiner may issue the certificate at that examination, the first time you report the condition, without contacting the FAA at all. The supporting documents stay in the examiner’s file instead of going in.

Read the next 29 as a list of things you can pass with, not a list of things that stop you. They are worth knowing precisely because they are so ordinary:

• Arthritis, asthma, colitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, psoriasis
• Hypertension, prediabetes, hypothyroidism, low testosterone, polycystic ovarian syndrome, weight loss management
• Migraine and chronic headache, essential tremor, glaucoma
• Chronic kidney disease, retained kidney stones, primary hemochromatosis, chronic hepatitis C, MASH or NASH liver disease
• Carotid or vertebral artery stenosis, mitral valve repair
• Chronic immune thrombocytopenia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma
• Bladder, breast, colon or colorectal, prostate, renal and testicular cancer

If the answer is no, and the clocks that start when it is

A denial at the examiner’s desk is the moment people assume everything is over. Part 67 does not treat it that way, but it does put a short clock on you, and almost nobody is told about it in the room.

• 30 days to ask for reconsideration. Under 14 CFR 67.409(a), any person who is denied a medical certificate by an aviation medical examiner may apply in writing to the Federal Air Surgeon for reconsideration within 30 days after the date of the denial. Let the 30 days go by and the regulation is blunt about what happens: he or she is considered to have withdrawn the application for a medical certificate. Nothing is decided against you. Your application simply stops existing.
• An examiner’s denial is not the FAA’s denial. 67.409(b)(1) says a denial by an aviation medical examiner is not a denial by the Administrator. That distinction is the whole reason reconsideration exists. The person who turned you down was not the person who decides.
• 60 days before a certificate in your hand is final. This one cuts the other way, and it is worth knowing before it surprises you. Under 14 CFR 67.407(c) a certificate issued by an examiner is considered to be affirmed as issued unless an authorized FAA official reverses that issuance within 60 days after the date of issuance. Walking out with a certificate is not the end of the review. It becomes the end of it after 60 days.
• 60 days, twice over, if an Authorization or SODA is withdrawn. 14 CFR 67.401(i) says the holder is served a letter of withdrawal stating the reason, may request review in writing by not later than 60 days after the service of the letter of withdrawal, and is to receive a written final decision within 60 days of receipt of a request for review.

The rule that applies to everyone, certificate or not

14 CFR 61.53 is titled Prohibition on operations during medical deficiency, and it has a paragraph for every case. If you hold a medical certificate, you may not fly while you know or have reason to know of a condition that would make you unable to meet its requirements, or while taking medication or receiving treatment that has that effect. If you hold no medical certificate at all, because you are flying as a sport pilot, a glider or balloon pilot, or under a driver’s license, you still may not fly while you know or have reason to know of a condition that would make you unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner. There is no version of this rule that lets anybody off.

Work out the hard parts before you sit down

The application runs to twenty items. Sixteen of them are facts you already know: your name, your address, the color of your eyes. Three of them are the reason people stall at the keyboard, because they need recall rather than knowledge, and getting them wrong is how an honest applicant ends up with an inaccurate application.

This worksheet covers those three. It is ours, not the FAA's, and it follows the order of the FAA's own published instructions so that what you write here lands in the right box when you get there. Nothing is sent anywhere. You fill it in, save it, and keep it beside you.

Eight guides that go deeper

This page is the overview. Each of these takes one question and works it through to the end, with the regulation quoted and linked so you can check it yourself.

Sources: 14 CFR 61.15, 61.16, 61.23, 61.53, 67.103, 67.107, 67.109, 67.111, 67.113, 67.303, 67.401, 67.403, 67.407, 67.409 and 107.17; 18 U.S.C. 1001; 49 CFR 1542.209, 49 CFR 1544.229(d) and 15 U.S.C. 1681c, which are not FAA rules and are marked as such on the page; the applicant history items and the CACI certification worksheets published in the FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners; the FAA’s own instructions to the application, published with MedXPress; the FAA Medical Examination Bill of Rights and the FAA’s own page on obtaining a medical certificate; and the FAA’s own published answer on felony convictions. Checked against primary text on 28 October 2026 and re-confirmed in our weekly FAA source review. The AME Guide is revised on the last Wednesday of each month, so the CACI worksheets are worth re-reading rather than remembering. Its current revision is dated 28 October 2026, and the FAA has announced the November update for Wednesday 18 November 2026.