Press release: Impact of the amendment to the regulation on medical certificates required for aviation licences

When applying for a licence rated a certain class or a certificate or rating connected to it, the medical certificate requirement for the licence class in question must also be met.

The medical certificate contains a lower class rating, and when an upper class rating expires, the lower class rating remains automatically valid until its expiry. A class 1 rating, for example, contains class 2 and LAPL ratings, which all have an expiry date marked on the certificate.

It is always the responsibility of the aviation licence holder to ensure that they have the valid medical certificate corresponding to the licence class. If the class of the medical certificate is lowered, the licence holder may continue to use the licence in compliance with the valid lower class medical certificate. An ATPL licence holder, for example, may use the PPL licence, if the rating of the medical certificate is lowered from class 1 to class 2. A PPL licence holder may also use their LAPL licence, if the rating of the medical certificate is lowered from class 1 or 2 to class LAPL. These do not require a notification or applying for a change from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.

If the pilot holds a combination of an ATPL/MPL/CPL/PPL licence and a medical certificate class LAPL, the pilot must remember that the licence class itself has not changed, meaning that they cannot apply the recent experience requirement enabled by the LAPL licence. This means that the class rating connected to the licence must be extended in accordance with the SEP class rating requirements (FCL.740.A b) by performing a proficiency check or using a combination of flight training and experience. Alternatively, the licence change to an LAPL licence must be applied for with Traficom.