A privacy-first app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that keeps your records, your medical certificate dates (first class, second class, or third class), your Special Issuance paperwork, and your MedXPress and BasicMed prep organized, so you walk into every exam ready. Your health data stays on your device and your own iCloud.
Free to use, with an optional Guardian Pro subscription. For iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Pilots are already using it to prep their actual FAA medical.
From 5-star App Store reviews
"Filling out my medexpress has never been easier… Whether you have a SI or not this is the perfect tool."
"Save your visits and your paperwork so you don't need to search your calendar every year."
"This takes one more level of stress out of my AME visit."
When a pilot runs into trouble with their FAA medical, it's usually not their health. It's the documentation. In the Federal Air Surgeon's own words, "most of these denials resulted because of a failure of the applicants to provide sufficient information." And it's common: about 1 in 16 certified airmen fly on a Special Issuance, and nearly 1 in 5 past age 65.
The FAA says so itself: in its April 2025 review, the agency named "incomplete information on airmen's submissions" a top challenge, and noted Special Issuances have roughly doubled since 2019. Its own fix (better paperwork prep and a clearer MedXPress) is exactly what this app does.
Sources: FAA Federal Air Surgeon · FAA 2024 Aerospace Medical Certification Statistical Handbook (Oct 2025) · FAA "Improving the Medical Process" (Apr 2025).
Fills the parts of the FAA form you'd otherwise retype every cycle.
Its Safari extension fills your medications (Item 17) and doctor visits (Item 19) straight into the live MedXPress form, so you don't retype the same information every renewal. You review every entry and submit it yourself. Nothing leaves your device. Your first autofill is free to try; autofill on every later renewal is part of Guardian Pro.
Read the FAA MedXPress guide →Scan, import, or share a PDF or photo, keep it organized, then bundle what you choose into one PDF and send it to your AME from your phone. The bundle is built on-device.
Keep lab results, letters, and scans in your own encrypted library, then choose exactly what to bundle into one clean PDF for your AME. It's built on your device and sent only when you send it.
Your certificate expiration (or your BasicMed course and exam dates) from the real 14 CFR rules, with reminders before anything lapses.
It figures your certificate's expiration from the actual 14 CFR 61.23 rules (your class, your age at the exam, the end-of-month convention), or your BasicMed course and exam clocks, and reminds you before anything lapses.
FAA medical duration chart →Requirements, documents, and change-alerts in one encrypted place.
Build your requirements checklist from the FAA's published requirements for your condition, store physician letters and test results encrypted, track what you've sent to the FAA, and get alerted when those requirements change.
How an FAA Special Issuance works →Charts your metrics against the FAA's own cited limits, so you can see where each of your numbers stands.
Connect Apple Health (read-only) and the app charts your metrics next to the FAA's own cited thresholds, so you can see where each of your numbers stands before your exam. It never renders a pass/fail.
Ask a plain question and get the FAA's own answer, with the citation and a link to the source.
Type something like “how long is a first class medical” or the name of a medication, and the app searches everything it carries from the FAA: medication status, the thresholds your readings are measured against, certificate durations, BasicMed, CACI conditions, Special Issuance requirements, the Item 18 questions, and where to mail documents. FAA results are quoted from published FAA material and cited to it, with the date that entry was last verified and a link to the FAA's own page, so you can read the original yourself. Plain-language definitions of aviation-medical terms are listed separately under “Definitions” and labelled as my words, not the FAA's. Searching runs entirely on your device and never touches your own records. It's free, and it reports what the FAA published without telling you what it means for you.
Surfaces the FAA's worksheet when a new diagnosis might be issued at the desk.
If you log a diagnosis the FAA's CACI worksheets cover (like high blood pressure, sleep apnea, or kidney stones), the app surfaces the FAA's own documents-required checklist, so you can walk in prepared to be issued at the desk rather than deferred.
Track your Part 68 course and exam dates, and fill the pilot section of FAA Form 8700-2 from records you already entered.
Track your Part 68 medical course (every 24 months) and comprehensive exam / CMEC (every 48 months) against the FAA's cited intervals, and prefill the pilot section of Form 8700-2 from records you've already entered.
Read the FAA BasicMed guide →Find an examiner by location, including HIMS-trained.
Search for an Aviation Medical Examiner by location, including HIMS-trained AMEs. It's a factual reference, with a link to the FAA's official locator.
A Safari extension fills the parts of FAA MedXPress you'd retype every renewal: your medications (Item 17) and doctor visits (Item 19). You review each field and tap Add yourself; it never submits, and nothing leaves your device.
How to turn on the autofill →Fly under BasicMed? The app tracks your 24-month medical course and 48-month comprehensive medical exam (CMEC) against the FAA's cited intervals, with reminders. It also fills the pilot section of FAA Form 8700-2 from records you already entered.
BasicMed privileges and limitations →
Screens use sample data.
Most pilots fill out MedXPress sitting at a computer. The Mac app puts your records on that same machine: open the form in Safari, click Fill, and your medications and doctor visits drop into Items 17 and 19. You review every line and submit it yourself.
What you enter on your iPhone is already here. Your records sync through your own iCloud, so nothing new leaves your devices.
Medication lists, visit histories and the Item 18 questions go faster on a real keyboard and a big screen than on a phone.
Guardian Pro carries across iPhone, iPad and Mac. If you already subscribe, you're set.
Free to download. Requires macOS 15.6 or later. Same App Store listing as the iPhone and iPad app. Screen uses sample data.
Lab results, physician letters, test reports, your Special Issuance authorization. They arrive as PDFs and paper from every direction. Bring them all into one place: scan a paper letter, import a PDF or photo you already have (a result your doctor emailed, or one you saved from your patient portal), or share one straight in from Mail or Files. The app keeps them organized, filed on their own or linked to the Special Issuance condition they belong to.
When it's time for your exam, bundle what you choose into one clean PDF and send it to your AME right from your phone: your certificate or BasicMed dates, medications, visits, Special Issuance, and the documents you've saved. You pick what goes in; it's built on your device and only leaves when you hit share.
Everything stays on your device and your own iCloud. Nothing is uploaded to me.
Your records sync only through your own iCloud private database. There's no Pilot Medical Guardian server holding your health, disclosure, or Special Issuance data. That isn't a promise to behave. It's how the app is built.
I'm a pilot at a major U.S. airline. Over the years I watched friends, healthy and capable aviators, get blindsided not by their health, but by the paperwork around it: a renewal that slipped, a Special Issuance requirement that got missed, a MedXPress answer that didn't match last cycle's. So I built the tool I wanted: private by design, grounded in the FAA's own published rules, and built so that no one but you can ever see your data. It keeps you organized; your AME still makes every certification decision.
Written by Ryan, founder of Pilot Medical Guardian
MedXPress is the FAA's free web application for submitting Form 8500-8 before your exam, at medxpress.faa.gov. You create an account, complete Items 1 through 20, submit, and bring the confirmation number to your AME. It is the application only. You still need the exam.
Two deadlines that catch pilots out. An application created but not submitted is removed after 30 days. Once submitted, your exam must happen within 60 days or the application is deleted and you start again. Full walkthrough of Items 17, 18 and 19.
No sign-up, no app required. Just clear walkthroughs of the FAA's own process, with a link to the official source for every rule.
Pilot Medical Guardian is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It's private by design, grounded in the FAA's own published rules, and especially useful if you're flying on a Special Issuance.
Free to use: your renewal countdown and reminders, unlimited record-keeping, the medication reference, Health, and the AME directory, plus one free MedXPress autofill to try it. An optional Guardian Pro subscription unlocks MedXPress autofill every cycle, CMEC prep and export, Share with your AME, My Documents, Special Issuance tracking, CACI pathway surfacing, and the prior-cycle answer comparison. $29.99 a year, auto-renews until canceled.
Free to download. Your medical data stays on your device and your own iCloud, and this website never sees it. Here's exactly how that works.
This app is an information and record-keeping tool. It is not medical, legal, or FAA compliance certification, and it is not medical advice. It helps you stay organized; your AME makes the certification decisions.
