they have less restrictive renewal to account for the fact that as people age they wear out
and the time lag for an ATP candidate from the initial to the renewal is what, 1 year, isn't it. Yeah I really think the 25 year old graduate of the
initial medical is going to be so worn out and knackered at 26 that he needs a more lax
renewal medical. Then it's another 10 years before he is in the LHS so he's had 10 (ten) renewal medicals by then.
You need to do better than this kind of argument, bose. Actually for some single pilot Transport ops the renewal gap is 6 months. You really need the renewal medical to be easier then
I am all in favour of
adequate competence, or demonstrated ability as it's called in medicals. It's pure stupid pointless illogical elitism I object to. It would be just as good to have an initial medical requiring your two big toes to be within 3mm of each other, or some other rather more personal "dimensions" I could think of, and allow any larger variation under "demonstrated ability" on the renewal.
In the RAF, where there used to be hundreds of applicants for every fast jet job, they could do this kind of stuff because they actually want to kick out 99% (especially in recent years where they don't need so many navigators anymore). But civilian aviation? Look at some of the obese unfit captains climbing into a British Airways (G-reg) 747 these days. They would have never passed an initial medical in that state. Many will be on BP and probably other medication. They are perfectly safe pilots though, which is what matters.
did you know for example that if you have had laser eye surgery you cant work for North Wales police and that is one of many examples
which will last precisely until somebody gets some pennies (lots of them) together and takes action under the European disability laws. This stuff is illegal nowadays and exists only because nobody bothers to challenge it.
The CAA is living on borrowed time. Baseless rules have already been challenged - see e.g. the Pape victory in Australia.