FAA's Latest Witch-Hunt

Against sleep apnea. The FAA is going to start requiring sleep studies be done by all pilots (and air-traffic controllers) who have a body-mass index of 40 or greater.

Eventually, the FAA plans to require sleep studies for everyone who has a BMI of over 25. Which is pretty much a significant minority, if not a majority, of pilots over a certain age.

The FAA Aeromedical people apparently are being close-mouthed on why they deem this to be necessary, other than to say that it's the NTSBs idea.

I've tried to find out what a private sleep study costs. Because this shit would not be medically necessary for me, at least, so I'd have to pay for it. And it seems that two or three grand is not out of line.

Yeah, that'll work out well. I'd be trying to sleep, with a bunch of wires on me, and knowing that I'd be paying a few grand for a stupid test because some asswipe of a doctor in Oklahoma City thinks it's a good idea.

What's going to happen is that a shitload of recreational pilots will balk at that. They'll downgrade to Sport Pilot and flip the bird at the FAA. Or they'll just quit flying.

Seems to me that the worst thing that happened in the Aeromedical Branch of the FAA was when Dr. Audie Davis retired as the FAA's chief medical officer. Dr. Davis, in my experience, was a reasonable person to deal with and one who was willing to help pilots keep (or get back) their medical certification.

The current crop seems to be more interested in finding new and innovative ways to ground people.