FAA medical reporting requirements for pilots run on several tracks at once. You must self-ground the moment a condition or medication makes you unfit to fly, send the FAA a written report within 60 days of any drug or alcohol-related motor vehicle action, disclose your full medical and criminal history each time you apply for a medical certificate, and go through Special Issuance review when a disqualifying diagnosis appears. Miss any of these and the FAA can suspend or revoke every certificate you hold.
Self-Grounding When You’re Not Fit to Fly
The baseline duty is continuous. Under 14 CFR 61.53, you cannot act as pilot in command or serve as a required flight crewmember if you know of any medical condition that would prevent you from meeting the standards for your certificate class, or if you are taking medication or undergoing treatment that leaves you unable to meet those standards.1eCFR. 14 CFR 61.53 – Prohibition on Operations During Medical Deficiency
The obligation kicks in the moment you become aware of the problem. You do not need FAA permission to stop flying, and you do not wait for your next medical exam. A serious infection, a course of sedating medication, or symptoms that would fail a medical exam all trigger it. You stay grounded until the condition resolves, the medication clears your system, or the FAA specifically authorizes you to resume flying.
Pilots operating under BasicMed follow a parallel version of the same rule: you cannot fly if you know of any condition that would make you unable to operate the aircraft safely. The practical effect is identical. If something is wrong, you stay on the ground.1eCFR. 14 CFR 61.53 – Prohibition on Operations During Medical Deficiency
The 60-Day Report for Drug and Alcohol Motor Vehicle Actions
This is where pilots most often get into trouble. Under 14 CFR 61.15, you must report any “motor vehicle action” connected to drugs or alcohol within 60 calendar days. A motor vehicle action means one of three things: a conviction for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, impaired, or under the influence; a license suspension, cancellation, or revocation tied to impaired driving; or the denial of a license application for the same reason. It does not matter whether an airplane was anywhere in the picture. A DUI in your personal car on a Saturday night triggers the requirement.2eCFR. 14 CFR 61.15 – Offenses Involving Alcohol or Drugs
The report is a written letter to the FAA Civil Aviation Security Division at P.O. Box 25810, Oklahoma City, OK 73125. It must include your name, address, date of birth, and airman certificate number, along with the type of violation, the date of the conviction or administrative action, and the state holding the record.
The 60-day letter and the medical application disclosure are two separate obligations. Sending the letter does not satisfy the Form 8500-8 disclosure the next time you apply for a medical, and disclosing on the application does not cure a missed 60-day letter. Missing the deadline is an independent violation that can cost you your certificate even when the underlying motor vehicle action would not have.2eCFR. 14 CFR 61.15 – Offenses Involving Alcohol or Drugs
This obligation applies to every certificate holder. BasicMed pilots are not exempt. The duty attaches to your airman certificate, not your medical pathway.
Two Actions in Three Years
A single motor vehicle action is bad enough. Two within three years is worse. Under 61.15(d), a second motor vehicle action within three years of the first is independent grounds for denial of any certificate application for up to one year, or suspension or revocation of your existing certificates. The only exception is when both actions arise from the same incident.2eCFR. 14 CFR 61.15 – Offenses Involving Alcohol or Drugs
Drug Convictions That Don’t Involve Driving
Section 61.15 also reaches drug convictions that have nothing to do with a vehicle. A conviction under any federal or state law related to growing, manufacturing, selling, possessing, or transporting narcotics, marijuana, or other controlled substances is grounds for denial of a certificate application for up to a year, or suspension and revocation of existing certificates. There is no separate 60-day letter for these offenses; they surface on your next medical application through Form 8500-8.2eCFR. 14 CFR 61.15 – Offenses Involving Alcohol or Drugs
What Form 8500-8 Requires You to Disclose
Every medical application runs through the MedXPress system on FAA Form 8500-8. The form reaches well past your current health. You must report all visits to health professionals within the relevant period, all hospitalizations, and every medication you take.3Federal Aviation Administration. Medical Certification
Item 18 asks about criminal history, including non-traffic convictions like assault, battery, public intoxication, robbery, drug possession, and domestic violence. If you answer yes, you identify the charge and the conviction date. These non-traffic convictions do not carry a standalone reporting deadline the way drug and alcohol motor vehicle actions do; they come up when you apply, and you answer honestly.4Federal Aviation Administration. Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners – Item 18w
Read the questions the way they are written. Many ask whether you have “ever” had a condition or event, not just recently. A seizure fifteen years ago, a psychiatric hospitalization in college, or a DUI from a decade back all need to be disclosed. Old history is not irrelevant history, and treating it that way is how falsification cases start.
Disqualifying Conditions and Special Issuance
Some diagnoses are listed in the medical standards under 14 CFR Part 67 as disqualifying. When one is present, an Aviation Medical Examiner cannot issue a standard certificate. The application is deferred to the FAA, and you go through Special Issuance, where FAA medical specialists review your records and decide whether you can fly safely.
The listed conditions fall into three categories:
- Cardiovascular: myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease that has required treatment or caused symptoms, and cardiac valve replacement.
- Neurological: epilepsy, any unexplained disturbance of consciousness, and transient loss of nervous system function without a satisfactory medical explanation.
- Psychiatric: psychosis, bipolar disorder, and substance dependence, unless you have at least two years of sustained total abstinence with clinical evidence of recovery satisfactory to the Federal Air Surgeon.
You submit specialist reports, test results, and treatment records to the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). Well-prepared packages sometimes clear in several weeks. Incomplete submissions routinely stretch to six months or longer, and partial responses to FAA follow-up requests can loop pilots through review cycles that run past a year. Complete documentation up front is the single most useful thing you can do.
Medications the FAA Will Not Let You Fly On
The FAA maintains two lists: Do Not Issue (DNI) and Do Not Fly (DNF). If you take a DNI medication, your AME must defer and cannot issue a certificate. DNF medications prohibit flying because of sedating or cognitively impairing effects, even if you feel fine.6Federal Aviation Administration. Do Not Issue and Do Not Fly Medication Tables
DNI categories include controlled substances (Schedules I through V), psychiatric and psychotropic medications, seizure medications, cancer treatments, angina medications, diabetic medications, centrally acting blood pressure medications, and high-dose steroids and weight loss drugs. DNF territory covers sedating antihistamines like diphenhydramine (Benadryl), tranquilizers like diazepam (Valium), opioid pain medications, muscle relaxants, and antipsychotics. Most antidepressants sit here too, though the FAA has allowed certain SSRIs through a Special Issuance pathway since 2010. Over-the-counter products like kava and valerian are also prohibited.7Federal Aviation Administration. Does the FAA Have a List of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs That Pilots Can and Cannot Take While Flying
The 61.53 self-grounding rule sits on top of both lists. A medication not on either list can still ground you if it impairs your ability to meet the standards for your certificate. When in doubt, call your AME before flying.
How BasicMed Changes the Reporting Picture
BasicMed replaces the AME visit with a physical exam by any state-licensed physician using the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist (CMEC), plus an online medical education course. You keep the signed checklist and course certificate in your logbook. There is no Form 8500-8 and no MedXPress submission.8Federal Aviation Administration. BasicMed
What does not change: self-grounding under 61.53, and the 60-day motor vehicle action report under 61.15. Both attach to your airman certificate.
One catch matters. If you have ever been diagnosed with any of the Part 67 disqualifying conditions, you must have completed the Special Issuance process at least once before you can fly under BasicMed.9eCFR. 14 CFR Part 68 – Requirements for Operating Certain Small Aircraft Without a Medical Certificate BasicMed is not a route around the FAA’s review of a serious diagnosis.
What Falsification and Missed Reports Cost
The FAA treats dishonesty on a medical application as one of the most serious violations a pilot can commit. Under 14 CFR 67.403, a fraudulent or intentionally false statement on a medical application is grounds for revocation of all your airman certificates, ground instructor certificates, and medical certificates, along with withdrawal of any Special Issuance authorizations.10Federal Register. Amended Prompt Settlement Policy for Legal Enforcement Actions Involving Medical Certificate-Related Fraud, Intentional Falsification, Reproduction, or Alteration
Revocation means starting over. Under the FAA’s current settlement policy, a pilot who agrees to prompt revocation and waives appeal rights typically cannot apply for a new certificate for nine months from the effective date of the revocation order. Fight it and lose, and the standard waiting period is one year. During that time you cannot hold or apply for any airman, ground instructor, or medical certificate. The revocation order also requires immediate surrender of your certificates, and failing to hand them over can trigger civil penalties on top.
Falsification cases often start with a problem that would have been manageable if disclosed. A pilot omits an old DUI on the medical application, the FAA finds it through a records check, and what could have been a 60-day letter and a Special Issuance review becomes a revocation. FAA policy explicitly ties failures to report motor vehicle actions under 61.15 to intentional falsification charges under 67.403 when the same information is later omitted on a medical application.11Federal Register. Settlement Policy for Legal Enforcement Actions Involving Medical Certificate-Related Fraud, Intentional Falsification, Reproduction, or Alteration
Filing Each Report
The 60-Day Letter
Write a notification that includes your full name, address, date of birth, airman certificate number, the type of violation, the date of the conviction or administrative action, and the state holding the record. Mail it to the FAA Security and Investigations Division at P.O. Box 25810, Oklahoma City, OK 73125, within 60 calendar days of the effective date of the conviction or action. Keep a copy.12Federal Aviation Administration. Security Notification for a Conviction or Administrative Action
The Medical Application
Complete Form 8500-8 through MedXPress before your AME appointment. Disclose every health professional visit, hospitalization, medication, medical condition, and criminal conviction the form asks about. Answer the questions as they are written. When you are unsure whether something needs to be reported, report it. Omission is what creates falsification risk.3Federal Aviation Administration. Medical Certification
Special Issuance Records
When your AME defers your application, ask exactly what CAMI will want for your specific condition, then send everything at once. Piecemeal submissions are the leading cause of reviews that stretch from weeks into many months.