The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) believes the industry may be a step closer to having medical examiners issue Class 2 medical certificates.
At the moment, CASA's aviation medical (AVMED) department issues the certificates based on examinations by Designated Aviation Medical Examiners (DAMEs). Having DAMEs issue the certificates would cut down on time and cost.
In a newsletter distributed to AOPA members, Dr Tony Van der Spek said the cause for optimism lay in a series of meetings to be held in each capital city.
"It would seem that CASA has made the decision to go ahead with this initiative, otherwise I don’t see why they are holding DAME meetings in each capital city," says Dr Van der Spek.
"This should, at the least, speed up the process of class two certificate issue and give DAMEs a sense of being more involved in the decision making in respect of their pilots."
Attempts to introduce this system in the past have been thwarted by the DAMEs themselves, who have been wary of liability issues.
AOPA has been working with the insurance industry and AVMED to set-up a system that alleviates the DAMEs' concerns.
"The system proposed will be on an opt-in/opt-out basis so it will be up to individual DAMEs to decide if they will agree to be part of the initiative," says Van der Spek.
"The computerised medical records system will be altered to enable DAMEs to have much greater access to pilot medical records and give the DAME much more information to make a decision."