Definitely lax in some ways, but medically it's incredible what they will latch on to and disqualify people for

Things are getting better though, they're getting less rules-minded and more safety-minded. But the proposals around drones don't seem out of the ordinary for FAA regulations to me

Some of their regs are pretty antiquated. They can disqualify people for using prescribed ADD meds for example with would actually make one a better pilot.

But the bar for a PPL was surprisingly low to me in many ways and the sport pilot license is shocking.

ADD meds can also be abused to keep one awake past the point where it is safe to fly though. They were used for this purpose long before they were discovered to help with ADD, which was in turn long before "Adult ADD" was considered a valid diagnosis.

Yea the 90s might have been the steroid era in baseball, but players beforehand were regularly consuming greenies as performance enhancers. https://www.razorgator.com/blog/remember-when-everyone-in-th...

I really regret not getting the sport license before my grampa couldn't pass his medical anymore. Would have loved if he could have kept his plane so I could take him up once in a while.

Am curious how this would have worked -- sport pilots are restricted to flying Light Sport Aircraft, which seem to be very uncommon. Was your grandpa's plane one?