Is it ever too early to renew a medical?

[BKFI]

My medical is up for renewal on the 26th June this year. There were a few complications last year so my medical can only be renewed by CASA so I'm trying to plan ahead for any delays they may cause.

Simple question that I can't find the answer for. Is it possible to attempt to renew a medical too early? I was planning to go back to the same doc I saw last year and can do that when I'm back home at the end of April. This will be about 8 weeks before its due. Does anyone know if this will be ok? I assume my medical will be "cut short" and only renewed until April 2010, but I'm not overly concerned about that.

Thanks

[mcgrath50]

As far as I know you can renew the medical every day of the year if you wanted to deal with CASA that much!

[Kelly Slater]

Your Medical will be renewed in the month that you do it. If your medical was due on February 20 but you did the test on Janurary 10, your medical would be valid till Janurary 20 and you lose a month.

[Dragun]

Up to 28 days before will keep your current expiry date. 29 days or earlier will change the expiry date to 12 months from the date you renewed it i.e. you 'lose' a month as stated above

[who_cares]

I had the same restriction on my medical for 5 yrs. Its not really that much of a hassle, if it looks like you wont get the medical renewed before the current one expires just call CASA and apply for an extention of your current medical. They will give it if your current medical hasnt expired.

[Keg]

BKFI. It's an annual challenge for me- particularly as I need an Optho report before I do my medical and that takes a few weeks to arrive prior to the actual medical. Making appointments to fit in with rosters, etc can be challenging. I simply accept that on some years my medical slides forward. About nine years ago it was September but it's back to June now.

[triadic]

Once upon at time, everyone's medical expired on the last day of the month they did their examination in plus 12 months. It was great as the expiry date never changed. If you expired at the end of March and did the medical sometime during the previous month it would stay at the end of the month. When they changed the rules to comply with ICAO they lost the ability to issue what was in effect a 13 month medical validation.

The CAA (pre CASA) of the day also failed to conduct a risk analysis on this change process as at the same time they stopped sending out reminder notices. There were many pilots without medicals for some time after that.

Trouble is the system is one that is designed to suit CASA and not the customer (!!)

My understanding is that your medical is valid from the day of your examination. If you do it early you loose that time. If you have special tests etc to undertake, make sure you do those first and they are available to the DAME on the day.

I really cant see why they can't make the process easier.... (like it used to be for example?)