Questions & Answers

Short version: The services pilots use are people you call when you need help. Pilot Medical Guardian is a tool you own that keeps you organized and prepared so you're ready when you walk into your exam, and so you get more value out of any service you already use.

• It's a tool, not a consulting service. Most pilot-medical services connect you with people who advise you on a specific problem, usually after it already exists. PMG organizes your own records and surfaces the FAA's own cited reference material so you walk into your exam, and into those conversations, already prepared.
• It's always-on, not engaged-when-something-breaks. The app continuously tracks your certificate's expiration, watches your health trends against the FAA's cited thresholds, keeps your Special Issuance checklist on cadence, and pre-builds your MedXPress every cycle.
• It complements any service you use. It doesn't replace one. When something genuinely goes sideways, a human expert or an aviation attorney is exactly who you want. Keep using whatever service you trust; PMG's job is to keep your records, timeline, and paperwork organized so you walk into those conversations prepared and get more out of them.

On MedXPress specifically: PMG's Safari extension fills the live MedXPress form fields directly in Safari. It fills the medications and doctor visits you'd otherwise retype every cycle, entirely on your device, with nothing sent to a server. It also warns you when this cycle's answers drift from last cycle's.

Yes, absolutely. PMG is a record-keeping and information tool, not a substitute for your Aviation Medical Examiner. It never tells you whether you're fit to fly and never makes a certification decision. It helps you show up to your AME organized and prepared. Your AME is the one who examines you and issues (or defers) your certificate.

Pilot Medical Guardian bundles what you choose into one clean PDF you hand to your AME straight from your device: email, AirDrop or print on iPhone and iPad, or print and mail it from your Mac. You pick exactly what goes in: your medical certificate, medications, doctor visits, Special Issuance details, and any documents you've saved. You preview it before you send. It's built entirely on your device and only leaves when you send it. It never passes through me. You can also bring in documents you already have: import a PDF or photo on any of your devices (like a lab result your doctor emailed you, or one you saved from MyChart or another portal). On iPhone and iPad you can also scan a paper letter with the camera, or share a PDF straight into the app from Mail or Files in a single tap.

Yes. My Documents is your own encrypted library inside the app. Import a PDF or photo from Files or Photos on any of your devices. On iPhone and iPad you can also scan a paper letter with your camera, or share one straight in from Mail or Files in a single tap. For example: a lab result your doctor emailed you, or one you've already saved out of MyChart or another patient portal. (The app doesn't connect to your portal or pull anything down on its own; you bring in the file you already have.) You can file each document on its own or link it to a Special Issuance condition so everything for that condition sits together. When it's time, you can include any of it in the clean PDF you share with your AME. Like everything else, your documents stay encrypted on your device and your own iCloud. I never see them.

No. Logbook apps track flight time; EFBs handle charts and flight planning. PMG is focused entirely on protecting your medical certificate: disclosure prep, renewal timing, Special Issuance tracking, health trends against FAA thresholds, and MedXPress autofill.

No. The app stores your records on your device and syncs them only through your personal iCloud private database, tied to your Apple ID. There is no PMG server and no analytics on your health data. I cannot see your conditions, medications, history, Special Issuance details, or documents. That's by design. (Guardian Pro's subscription is managed through Apple and a subscription provider, RevenueCat; that involves an anonymous "is this device subscribed" signal, used to unlock Pro and for anonymous subscription numbers, and it never touches your medical data. Details in the Privacy Policy.)

On your iPhone, iPad, or Mac (encrypted at rest), and synced to your own iCloud account so it's available across your Apple devices and survives a lost phone. That's it. It never goes anywhere else.

It's yours. You can erase everything from inside the app (About → Erase All Data). If you delete the app, your local copy goes with it; your iCloud copy follows your normal iCloud data controls. Because nothing is on a PMG server, there's no account for me to close and no copy of your medical data for me to keep. (One small exception once you've installed the app: my subscription provider, RevenueCat, holds an anonymous record so subscriptions work. It contains no health data and nothing that identifies you. Email support@pilotmedicalguardian.com and I'll have it deleted.)

Only with your permission, and only read-only. PMG never writes to Apple Health. It pulls metrics like heart rate, HRV, SpO2, and VO2 max so it can chart your trends against the FAA's cited thresholds. Wearables like Garmin, Whoop, Oura, Fitbit, and CGMs flow in through Apple Health too. You can decline and still use everything else. Apple Health doesn't exist on macOS, so the Mac app doesn't use it: readings you've already collected still appear there through iCloud, and you can type new ones in directly.

No, and this is deliberate. The app is strictly descriptive: it shows you your reading, the FAA's cited threshold, and the source, but it never renders a pass/fail or fitness verdict and never advises you on a disclosure decision. Those judgments are between you and your AME.

No. Pilot Medical Guardian is not medical advice, not legal advice, and not FAA compliance certification. It helps you keep records and surfaces the FAA's own published reference material with citations. Always consult your AME for medical certification questions.

All of them: Class 1, 2, and 3, plus BasicMed (14 CFR Part 68). The certificate-duration math, renewal reminders, BasicMed date tracking, and reference content all work for professional and general-aviation pilots alike.

Yes. If you fly under BasicMed, the app gives you a plain-language guide to the FAA's Part 68 requirements (quoted from, or linked straight to, the FAA's own pages), plus tracking for the two clocks that matter: your medical-education course (every 24 months) and your physician exam / CMEC (every 48 months). It shows both at a glance and reminds you before they're due.

When it's time for your exam, the app can also fill the pilot section of the FAA's Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist (Form 8700-2) from the records you've already entered, so you hand your physician a clean, prepared form instead of retyping everything by hand. You review and sign it yourself. The app never marks the medical-history checkboxes or makes any determination for you.

If you fly under a regular FAA medical certificate, under BasicMed, or you're moving between them, you can tell the app how you fly and it tracks the right dates for your path. Like everything else, it's information and record-keeping, not medical advice, and your AME or examining physician makes every medical decision.

New to BasicMed? I wrote a plain-language guide to the Part 68 rules: eligibility, the two clocks (the 24-month course and 48-month exam), and the CMEC (Form 8700-2).

Special Issuance tracking is one of the deepest parts of the app, because an SI is where pilots most often get tripped up. Once you add your condition, PMG:

• Builds your requirements checklist from the FAA's published requirements for that condition, with each item cited to its source.
• Keeps you on cadence. Set a reminder for a recurring requirement (e.g., "annual stress test, three months before my medical is due") and the app reminds you, on whatever schedule you pick. Reminders are deliberately generic on your lock screen so your condition never shows there.
• Stores your documentation encrypted (physician letters, test results, your Authorization letter) on your device and your private iCloud, and can assemble it all into a single share-ready package when it's time to submit.
• Tracks what you've sent to the FAA. The #1 cause of an SI problem is "they never received it," so each document shows whether it's been submitted.
• Alerts you when a requirement changes. If the FAA's published requirements for your condition change, the app flags it and shows you the old wording next to the new wording so nothing slips by.
• Explains AASI vs. full Special Issuance in plain language, cited to the source. It's descriptive, never a recommendation about your path.

If your condition isn't in my curated list, you can add a custom Special Issuance and build the checklist yourself from your own Authorization letter. Custom SIs are purely your personal tracking. They never leave your device, and they're not FAA reference content, so the app labels them as such.

CACI stands for Conditions AMEs Can Issue: a set of common conditions (for example high blood pressure, sleep apnea, or kidney stones) that the FAA lets your AME clear right at your exam, instead of deferring your application for a Special Issuance, as long as you bring the documentation the FAA asks for. For each one, the FAA publishes a CACI Worksheet listing exactly what's required. If you log a diagnosis that matches one, Pilot Medical Guardian surfaces the FAA's own worksheet and its documents-required checklist, so you can walk into your exam prepared to be issued at the desk rather than deferred. Like everything else in the app, it's descriptive. It shows you the FAA's checklist with a link to the source; whether you qualify is determined by the FAA's criteria and your AME.

Yes, and it's free. FAA Reference searches everything the app 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. Ask it the way you'd ask a person, like “how long is a first class medical” or just a drug name. Every FAA result is 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 go read the original. Plain-language definitions of aviation-medical terms sit in their own group labelled Definitions, so it's always clear which words are the FAA's and which are mine. Searching happens entirely on your device, and it never reads your own records.

It's a one-time setup on whichever device you use. Follow the step-by-step guide for iPhone and iPad or for Mac: switch on the Safari extension in Settings, then tap the “Fill from Pilot Medical Guardian” button when you're filling out MedXPress.

It's a Safari Web Extension. You open MedXPress in Safari, tap the PMG button, and it fills the form fields from the data you've already entered in the app, so you don't retype your medications and doctor visits every cycle. You always review everything before you submit; the app never auto-submits for you.

New to MedXPress itself? I wrote a plain-language guide to the whole MedXPress process: the timing rules, your confirmation number, and what Items 17, 18, and 19 ask.

Two reasons. First, MedXPress already remembers your static demographic info (name, address, etc.) for returning applicants, so there's no point duplicating that. Second, the medical-history section sits behind bot-protection on the FAA's site that blocks bulk automated filling; the app fills a handful of your "Yes" answers with their saved explanations and shows you the rest as a reference card to fill in by hand. The autofill focuses on the genuinely painful, retype-every-cycle parts: your medications and your visits.

Yes. The extension only fills fields you can see, using data that's already on your device, and it never submits anything. You review and click Submit yourself. Browser form-fillers (password managers and the like) work this same well-established way.

You're probably in a Safari Private Browsing window. Private tabs don't keep you logged in, so each time you switch back to the app, MedXPress makes you sign in again. Open MedXPress in a normal (non-private) Safari window and it'll stay logged in while you work.

There's nothing for a doctor to review, by design, because the app never makes a medical judgment about you. It doesn't decide whether you're fit to fly, and it doesn't tell you what to disclose. Those are your AME's calls, and the FAA's.

Here's how the reference content actually works. When the app describes an FAA rule, that description is written in plain language, by me. It isn't quoted, because the source is usually a multi-page CACI worksheet or a stretch of the AME Guide that doesn't reduce to a quotable line. What every entry carries is the name of the FAA document it came from and a link straight to it, so you can read the original and judge for yourself whether I summarized it fairly.

So the honest version isn't "the FAA said this, in these words." It's "here's what the FAA's document says, here's which document, and here it is, one tap away." Where the exact wording matters, go to the source. Your AME and the FAA make the certification decisions.

And I never invent a value or rule. If it isn't in an authoritative FAA source, it doesn't ship.

No. Pilot Medical Guardian is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the FAA. It cites the FAA's published materials so you can read the source yourself, but the FAA has no involvement in the app.

It's built by an airline pilot who watched too many colleagues get blindsided by medical-certification paperwork problems (denials, lost Special Issuance authorizations, MedXPress mistakes) and wanted the tool he wished existed. It's a privacy-first project meant to be sustainable so it can keep helping pilots, not a data business.

Pilot Medical Guardian is free to use: your medical's expiration countdown (with reminders on iPhone and iPad), unlimited record-keeping, the medication reference, Health, the AME directory, and one free MedXPress autofill to try it. Guardian Pro is an optional annual subscription ($29.99/year) that unlocks MedXPress autofill every renewal, CMEC prep and export, Share with your AME, document storage, Special Issuance tracking, CACI pathway surfacing, and the prior-cycle answer comparison. It auto-renews yearly until you cancel. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple account settings. One subscription covers all your devices, so if you subscribe on your iPhone, Guardian Pro is already active on your iPad and your Mac.

Pilot Medical Guardian is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Install it, open it, and follow the short setup: add your certificate (or your BasicMed dates), then log your medications and doctor visits as they happen. When you're ready to use the MedXPress autofill, the app walks you through turning on the Safari extension.

An iPhone or iPad on iOS or iPadOS 18.6 or later, or a Mac on macOS 15.6 or later. There's no account to create and no sign-up. On iPhone and iPad, an Apple Watch (or another wearable that syncs to Apple Health) makes the health-trends feature richer, but every other feature works without one. The Mac app doesn't use Apple Health; you enter readings there yourself, or they sync over from your iPhone.

Yes. It's a universal app and runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The MedXPress autofill is especially handy on iPad and Mac, where you can keep Safari and the form side-by-side.

Yes, through your own iCloud, exactly the way your iPhone and iPad already sync. Add a medication on your phone and it's on your Mac; prep MedXPress on your Mac and it's on your phone. There's no Pilot Medical Guardian server in the middle, so this works as long as you're signed into the same iCloud account on both.

No. Guardian Pro is one subscription across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Buy it once on any of them and it unlocks on all of them, through the same Apple account. If Pro doesn't appear on a device you've just set up, open About then Subscription and choose Restore Purchases.

Almost. Your records, MedXPress prep and autofill, Special Issuance, BasicMed, CMEC prep, My Documents, the medication reference and the AME directory are all there. Four things work differently on the Mac: Apple Health (it doesn't exist on the Mac, so you type readings in or let them sync over), renewal reminder notifications (your phone already sends those, so the Mac adds the deadline to your calendar instead), scanning a paper document with the camera, and sharing a file straight into the app from Mail or Files. You can still import documents on the Mac, and you can lock the app behind Touch ID or your login password.

No. The health-trends feature is richer if you have one (or another wearable that syncs to Apple Health, which is iPhone and iPad only), but every other feature (renewal tracking, disclosure prep, MedXPress autofill, Special Issuance, AME directory) works without one.

Right now it's limited to a verified subset of HIMS-trained AMEs while I wait on a fuller FAA designee list I've formally requested. The app tells you this directly and points you to the FAA's official locator in the meantime.

Email support@pilotmedicalguardian.com, or send feedback right from the app (About → Send feedback). It goes straight to me. Your feedback is exactly how the app gets better; nothing is too small.