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FAA Medical Certificate vs. BasicMed: Which You Need
✓ Reviewed against current FAA sources on October 5, 2026
In this guide
In short
Section 61.23 (opens in a new tab)(a) ties the class of medical certificate to the privileges you exercise. BasicMed has offered a second route since 2017, and its limits were widened substantially in 2025, so older figures still circulating online are out of date.
The medical is the one part of pilot certification you cannot study your way through. The rules are written with unusual care about timing, and the knowledge test examines that timing rather than the medicine. Since 2017 there has been a second route, BasicMed, and its limits were widened substantially in 2025. A good deal of what circulates online still prints the old numbers.
Which class, for which operation
Section 61.23 (opens in a new tab)(a) ties the class of medical to the operation being conducted, not the certificate you hold. A commercial pilot flying for pleasure needs only what a private pilot needs.
- First class: required to exercise airline transport pilot privileges as pilot in command, and by any Part 121 required flightcrew member who has reached age 60.
- Second class: required to exercise commercial pilot privileges.
- Third class: required to exercise private, recreational or student pilot privileges, to act as a flight instructor when serving as pilot in command, and to take a practical test in an aircraft.
A higher class satisfies a lower requirement, and this is where it gets interesting: the certificate does not expire all at once. It steps down. A first class medical held by a 35 year old is good for 12 calendar months as a first class certificate, then continues as second class, then as third class, for a total of 60 calendar months from the month of the examination.
How long a medical lasts
Every period is counted in calendar months and expires at the end of the last day of the final month. An examination on March 3 is good through March 31 of the appropriate later year, never through March 3.
Age is fixed at the date of the examination, not the date of the flight. A pilot who was 39 on examination day keeps the longer period even after turning 40 the following week.
How long a medical serves each set of privileges, in calendar months. Age is the age on the day of the examination. Bars are drawn to the longest period, 60 months.
The bottom two rows are the ones a private pilot lives by. Under 40 at the examination: five years. Forty or over: two years. The class of the certificate makes no difference to how long it serves private pilot privileges.
BasicMed, and what changed in 2025
BasicMed lets many pilots fly without holding a current FAA medical certificate. It is not a medical certificate and the FAA does not issue it. It is a set of conditions you satisfy and document yourself, under 61.23(c)(3) and Part 68.
Eligibility. You must have held an FAA medical certificate at some point after July 14, 2006. That certificate may be expired: expiry is irrelevant. What matters is that your most recent certificate was not suspended or revoked, your most recent special issuance authorization was not withdrawn and your most recent application was not completed and denied.
That distinction is the sharp edge of BasicMed. An expired medical is a doorway. A denied application is a locked door. A pilot uncertain whether a condition would be disqualifying is often better advised not to apply until the question is resolved, because an application that is completed and denied forecloses this route entirely.
The two clocks. A medical education course meeting 68.3 within the preceding 24 calendar months, and a comprehensive medical examination by a State-licensed physician within the preceding 48 calendar months, documented on the FAA checklist. Twenty-four for the course, forty-eight for the physical. They run independently and the test asks which is which.
The BasicMed operating limits
These are the numbers that changed. They are set by 61.113(i) rather than by the BasicMed rule itself, which is where a reader checking the citation will find them. The limits now in force are:
- an aircraft authorized to carry not more than 7 occupants;
- a maximum takeoff weight of not more than 12,500 pounds;
- not more than 6 passengers on board;
- at or below 18,000 feet MSL;
- at an indicated airspeed not exceeding 250 knots;
- within the United States, unless the country of flight authorizes otherwise.
BasicMed originally limited you to 6,000 pounds, 6 occupants and 5 passengers. Those figures were raised by Amendment 61-159, published July 24, 2025, and effective October 22, 2025. If a study guide or website quotes 6,000 pounds, it predates that amendment.
You must also comply with any medical requirements or restrictions on your U.S. driver's license. BasicMed changes nothing else: the prohibition on compensation in 61.113(a) applies in full, and the flight review and currency requirements are untouched.
Flying with a condition: 61.53
Section 61.53 (opens in a new tab) states a duty that operates continuously, independent of any certificate. No person may act as pilot in command while they know or have reason to know of any medical condition that would make them unable to meet the requirements for the certificate held, or while taking medication or receiving treatment that has the same effect.
Three features matter. It is self-executing: nobody tells you the certificate has stopped working. It reaches temporary conditions as readily as permanent ones, including a bad head cold or a course of antihistamines. And it reaches treatment as well as condition, so a pilot whose illness is well controlled may still be grounded by the medication controlling it.
The practical tool for applying it before each flight is IMSAFE: Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion.
Sources: 14 CFR 61.23 (opens in a new tab), 61.53 (opens in a new tab), 61.113 (opens in a new tab)(i), 67.401 (opens in a new tab), 91.17 (opens in a new tab); 14 CFR Part 68 (opens in a new tab); Amendment 61-159 (90 FR 35034), effective October 22, 2025.