How to Track Pilot Medicals and Document Expirations

An FAA medical certificate shows the date of the exam, not an expiration date. Medical certificate expiration is something you calculate from three facts: the class of the medical, the pilot's age on the exam date, and the kind of flying they are about to do. Under 14 CFR 61.23(d), a third-class medical for a pilot under 40 at the exam is good through the last day of the 60th month after the exam month. For a pilot who was 40 or older at the exam, it is the 24th month. First- and second-class medicals step down to lower-class privileges as they age rather than simply expiring.

For a flight school, the arithmetic is the easy part. The hard part is that the medical, the flight review, the solo endorsement, the renter's insurance, and the ID all run on different clocks, and the person who usually discovers a lapse is the instructor standing next to the airplane at 7 AM. The fix is one list of every expiring document for every person, dates calculated the same way every time, reminders that start early enough to book an aviation medical examiner, and a written rule for what happens when something lapses.

How medical certificate expiration works

Three rules from 61.23(d) cover almost every case a flight school sees.

It runs in calendar months. The certificate expires at the end of the last day of the Nth month after the month of the exam. An exam on March 3 and an exam on March 28 expire on the same day. Nobody needs to count days.

Age is measured on the exam date, not today. A pilot who took a third-class exam at 39 keeps the 60-month duration even after turning 40 the following week. A pilot examined on their 40th birthday gets the 24-month duration.

Higher classes step down. A first-class medical carries first-class privileges for a short time, then keeps working for second- and third-class privileges. The pilot doesn't need a new certificate to keep renting; they need to know which privileges are still live.

Count each duration in months after the exam month; the privileges end on the last day of the final month. The regulation's table has more detail (for example, first-class rules for some Part 121 operations), so check it for anything unusual.

Three worked examples from a typical roster:

• A 22-year-old student takes a third-class exam on June 14, 2026. The medical is good through June 30, 2031.
• A 52-year-old renter takes a third-class exam on June 14, 2026. The medical is good through June 30, 2028.
• A 44-year-old instructor takes a first-class exam on January 9, 2026. First-class privileges run through July 31, 2026, second-class privileges through January 31, 2027, and third-class privileges through January 31, 2028.

One more thing to read on every certificate: the limitations box. A special issuance medical can carry a "not valid for any class after" date that comes before the normal duration. When it does, that date is the one you track.

Who at a flight school needs which medical

Student pilots need at least a third-class medical (or BasicMed, covered below) to exercise student pilot privileges, which in practice means before they solo (61.23(a)(3)(i)). Dual lessons don't require one. Even so, ask new students to book the exam early. A deferral or special issuance can take a long time to resolve, and it is better for everyone to learn that before the student has paid for 15 hours of dual.

Renters and club members exercising private pilot privileges need at least a third-class medical or BasicMed.

Instructors don't need a medical when they aren't acting as pilot in command or serving as a required crewmember (61.23(b)(7)). When the instructor is PIC, which is the case on dual flights with a student pilot, they need at least a third-class medical or BasicMed (61.23(a)(3)(ii) and (c)(1)(vii)). A simple school policy is to require every instructor to keep one current, so scheduling never has to ask.

Commercial operations such as tours or aerial photography need at least a second-class medical under 61.23(a)(2). BasicMed doesn't cover them.

BasicMed for renters and instructors

BasicMed lets a pilot fly without a current FAA medical certificate if they hold a U.S. driver's license and meet 61.23(c)(3). The short version:

• They must have held an FAA medical certificate at some point after July 14, 2006. A brand-new student who has never had one can't start on BasicMed.
• Their most recent medical can be expired, but it can't have been suspended or revoked, and their most recent application can't have been denied.
• They complete an approved online medical education course every 24 calendar months.
• They get a comprehensive medical exam from a state-licensed physician every 48 calendar months, using the FAA's checklist (14 CFR Part 68).

The aircraft and operating limits are in 61.113(i): an aircraft authorized to carry no more than 7 occupants with a maximum takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds or less, no more than 6 passengers, at or below 18,000 feet MSL, no faster than 250 knots indicated, and within the United States unless another country authorizes it. Those limits were raised in late 2024, so older handouts and forms may still show the previous numbers. The FAA's BasicMed page says BasicMed flights can't be operated for compensation or hire, and it lists flight instructors among the pilots who can use it. Read the FAA text for anything near the edges.

For the school, BasicMed means two dates to track instead of one: the course completion date (24 calendar months) and the exam date (48 calendar months). The pilot keeps the signed checklist and the course certificate in their logbook. Ask for copies of both. And before you accept BasicMed for rentals, confirm that your aircraft insurance policy's pilot requirements allow it.

The other documents that expire

The medical gets the attention, but these lapse too, each on its own clock:

• Flight review. Required within the preceding 24 calendar months to act as PIC (61.56(c)). A practical test for a new certificate or rating counts, and a student pilot in training with a current solo endorsement doesn't need one. See the regulation for the other exceptions.
• Solo endorsements. A student's solo endorsement is for a specific make and model and has to be from training within the preceding 90 days (61.87(n) and (p)). It is an easy date to miss on a busy Saturday.
• Recent experience. Passenger currency under 61.57(a) is its own 90-day clock, and IFR rentals depend on the 6-calendar-month instrument experience rule in 61.57(c). These live in the pilot's logbook, so ask.
• Flight instructor certificates. A CFI certificate issued on or after December 1, 2024 has no expiration date, but the instructor still has to meet the recent experience requirements of 61.197 every 24 calendar months. Certificates issued before that date carry an expiration date until they are renewed (61.19(d)). Track whichever applies to each instructor.
• Renter's insurance. The policy period and the coverage amounts your school requires.
• Government ID and passport. An expired document can matter for identity checks and for the records you keep under the TSA's flight training security rules. Check the current program requirements with TSA, and see our guide to TSA flight training security program rules.
• School checkouts. Your own rules, such as a checkout in each make and model or a recheck after a long gap. The FAA doesn't set these, so they only exist if you write them down.

What a good tracking setup looks like

One record per person. Every document and its expiration date sits on the person, not in a binder of photocopies at the front desk. When a student uploads a new medical, the old date disappears from view and the new one takes its place.

The same calculation every time. Enter the class, the date of birth, and the exam date, and calculate. Don't let whoever is at the desk eyeball it. In Sky Schedule, uploading a first-, second-, or third-class medical asks for exactly those fields and fills in the expiration date for each class of privileges using calendar months and the age-40 rule. Staff can still edit the dates and save any limitations as a note. Students can upload their medical during online enrollment and onboarding, so the document arrives before the first booking.

Someone verifies. A phone photo of a medical is easy to misread. Have a staff member compare the upload against the certificate and mark it verified.

Reminders that start early. An AME appointment isn't always available next week, and a deferral takes much longer. Start reminders about 60 days out for medicals, then 30, then a week. A 90-day solo endorsement needs a shorter cycle, since the instructor can renew it on the next lesson.

Flag at booking, check again at dispatch

Schools argue about whether an expired document should be caught at booking or at the flight. Check at both, for different reasons.

A check at booking gives the pilot days to fix the problem, and it keeps the schedule from filling with flights that won't happen. Make sure the check compares against the date of the flight, not today's date. A medical that is valid today and expires next Tuesday shouldn't pass for a flight next Thursday.

A check at dispatch catches what changed after the booking: an endorsement that aged past 90 days, a new limitation, an insurance policy that lapsed. This is the last look before the engine starts, and a person should make it.

Decide who can override, and require a note when they do. Usually that should be the chief instructor.

In Sky Schedule, activity types can require documents and endorsements. The booking form flags anything missing, and the dispatch report lists document gaps before check-out. For reminders, the school can turn on an expiring-documents workflow that emails people whose documents expire in the next 30 days. The flight school compliance software page shows how the pieces fit, and the scheduling software page covers the dispatch side.

Your next step

This week, pull every active student, renter, and instructor. For each one, write down the medical class, the exam date, and their age on that date, then recalculate the expiration from the table above. Add the flight review date, any solo endorsement date, and the insurance expiration. Fix any date that was wrong or missing first, then set up reminders so you hear about the next one 60 days early instead of on the ramp.