But what happens if I have a heart attack when driving my car? I may cross to the other side of the road and have a head-on with an innocent 3rd party - or I may wipe out a bus queue, or I may just hit a wall with no 3rd party casualties.
In my aeroplane, anyone with me who'se not a pilot will probably die with me, but they knew that risk when they came for the flight. The chance of anyone on the ground being hit is very remote.
Which one poses the greater risk to the General Public? It's important to keep a sense of proportion here.
I'm not anti CAA, though being a QUANGO they have no 'predators' to keep thier powers under reasonable control. But i do think that strict medicals for recreational PPLs are OTT - and the NPL, which the CAA have championed, will address that.
On the other hand, I had my JAA class 2 last week. When you are a fat middle aged stressed-out male like me it's not a bad 130 quid's worth to know that all appears to be in order. having said that, and despite a perfect ECG trace, I know I could keel over anytime - I wouldn't be the first.
SSD