I am miles away and unable to check out the references right now, but I simply cannot believe that the FAA Class 1, which I have myself, and which I know does
not include an audiogram, is
sub ICAO, that the USA has filed a difference with ICAO (as it must in such a case), and therefore all US air carriers flying the world over are doing it on
non ICAO compliant licenses
There has to be more to this.
The audiogram is indeed JAA, and it is under JAA that the "demonstrated ability" option is available (which makes a mockery of having the requirement in the first place
), but the audiogram was also required for the pre-JAA CAA IR.
About a year ago, the CAA published a change (I have the URL but not with me) relaxing the
initial requirements to the
renewal levels. I never did check whether this was in JAA too but I guess it must be. Or maybe other JAA member states never did have the more onerous initial limits.
Any medical requirement that exists for initial but does not exist on renewal is patently bogus and one has to question the thought processes of the people that drew up the requirements.
There is a general problem with medical requirements, in that the medical department of the UK CAA, and I believe similarly with other CAAs, is quite powerful and is probably the biggest stumbling block to any changes to make the requirements more appropriate to private flight.