How to Fill Out FAA Form 8700-2: BasicMed CMEC Steps

FAA Form 8700-2 is the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist you complete to fly under BasicMed instead of holding a traditional FAA medical certificate. You fill out the personal and medical history sections yourself, bring the form to any state-licensed physician for the physical exam, and then enter the results into an FAA-approved online medical course that transmits the information to the agency. The signed form stays in your logbook. You never mail it anywhere.

Confirm You Are Eligible Before You Start

Filling out the form is wasted effort if you cannot legally use BasicMed. Three baseline requirements come straight from the governing regulation.¹

You hold a current, valid U.S. driver’s license at the time you fly. A suspended or expired license grounds you.
You have held a valid FAA medical certificate issued after July 14, 2006. If you never have, you need to obtain a standard medical certificate from an Aviation Medical Examiner first.
Your most recent FAA medical application was not denied, revoked, or suspended. If it was, you must go through the standard medical certification process again before BasicMed becomes available.

When you register for the online course, you also authorize the FAA to run a one-time check of your driving record through the National Driver Register.²

Fill Out Your Sections of the Form

Download Form 8700-2 from the FAA’s BasicMed page.³ The form has three sections. You complete the first two before your appointment.

Section 1 is identification: your name, address, date of birth, and airman certificate number. Nothing complicated, but the airman certificate number must match FAA records exactly, since the course provider uses it when transmitting your data.

Section 2 is the medical history self-assessment. It asks about past surgeries, current medications, and any diagnosed conditions, including the specific mental health, neurological, and cardiovascular conditions that trigger the special issuance requirement described below. Answer honestly and completely. The physician uses your answers as the starting point for the exam, and everything you write eventually reaches the FAA. A false statement on a federal form can bring a fine and up to five years of imprisonment.⁴

Take the Form to a State-Licensed Physician

Any state-licensed physician can perform the BasicMed exam. It does not have to be an Aviation Medical Examiner. Your primary care doctor, an internist, or any other physician with a current state medical license qualifies.⁵

The physician works through Section 3, a head-to-toe clinical examination covering vision, hearing, cardiovascular health, neurological function, and the other items listed on the form.⁶ The doctor checks off each item, discusses any listed condition or medication with you, and then decides whether to sign the Physician’s Signature and Declaration at the bottom. The declaration states that the physician is not aware of any medical condition that, as presently treated, would interfere with your ability to operate an aircraft safely.⁵

If the physician will not sign, you cannot use BasicMed until the underlying issue is resolved. BasicMed has no internal appeal, so at that point your path back into the cockpit runs through standard FAA medical certification.

Submit Through the Online Medical Course

Once you have the signed form, you complete an FAA-approved online medical education course. Two free options exist: the AOPA BasicMed Medical Self-Assessment course and the Mayo Clinic BasicMed Online Training Course.³ Both cover the same required material: ongoing self-assessment, warning signs of serious medical conditions, risks of impairing medications, and your obligation not to fly when medically unfit.²

At the end of the course you fill out an online form with your pilot certificate information and the data from the signed checklist: the physician’s name, address, phone number, state medical license number, and the exam date. You certify that the checklist was followed and signed, and you acknowledge that you will not fly with any condition that would make it unsafe. Submitting the form electronically transmits everything to the FAA.² The paper form itself never leaves your possession.

The system then produces a course completion certificate. Print it or save it. That certificate, together with the signed Form 8700-2, becomes your proof of BasicMed status. Review every field before you submit, because the data goes straight into FAA records and corrections after the fact are more work than getting it right the first time.

Timing Between the Exam and the Course

AOPA’s course gives you 90 days after your physician exam to finish the course and submit the checklist data. Miss that window and the provider clears your progress, so you start over.⁷ Doing both in the same month is the cleanest approach.

What to Keep, and for How Long

Two documents must stay in your logbook, in paper or electronic form, and be available on request: the signed Form 8700-2 and the course completion certificate.¹ The form itself carries the same instruction.⁵ If an FAA inspector asks during a ramp check and you cannot produce them, you are out of compliance and open to enforcement action.

The physical exam is good for 48 months. The online course must be retaken every 24 months. When the course expires, you can retake it and submit fresh data without a new physical exam, so long as the 48-month window is still open. When the exam window closes, you go back to Step 1 with a new Form 8700-2. Tracking these dates is on you. Neither the physician nor the course provider will remind you.

Conditions That Require a Special Issuance First

Certain diagnoses block you from stepping directly into BasicMed. If any of the following applies, you must complete an FAA Authorization for Special Issuance of a Medical Certificate once before you can operate under BasicMed.⁸

Mental health: a severe personality disorder shown by repeated overt acts, psychosis with delusions or hallucinations, bipolar disorder, or substance dependence within the previous two years.
Neurological: epilepsy, an unexplained disturbance of consciousness, or an unexplained loss of nervous system function.
Cardiovascular: heart attack, coronary heart disease that required treatment, cardiac valve replacement, or heart replacement.

Cardiovascular cases require a successful clinical evaluation but no fixed waiting period.⁸ Once the special issuance is done for a given condition, it is a one-time gate. You do not repeat it at each BasicMed renewal.

Operating Limits Once You Are on BasicMed

Form 8700-2 gets you into BasicMed, and BasicMed has firm boundaries.¹

Aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight up to 12,500 pounds, authorized for no more than seven occupants (you plus six). Part 29 transport category rotorcraft are excluded.
No portion of the flight above 18,000 feet mean sea level.
Indicated airspeed no greater than 250 knots.
No compensation or hire. Private operations only.
No international flights unless the destination country specifically authorizes BasicMed. Most do not, because BasicMed does not meet ICAO medical standards.

Anything beyond those limits requires a standard FAA medical certificate under Part 67, not another pass through Form 8700-2.

1
eCFR. 14 CFR 61.113 – Private Pilot Privileges and Limitations: Pilot in Command
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eCFR. 14 CFR 68.3 – Medical Education Course Requirements
3
Federal Aviation Administration. BasicMed
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
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Federal Aviation Administration. FAA Form 8700-2 Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist
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eCFR. 14 CFR 68.5 – Comprehensive Medical Examination
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Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. BasicMed Course Completed Before Doctor Visit
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eCFR. 14 CFR 68.9 – Special Issuance Process