Class 2 or LAPL medical: which one do you actually need?

Pilots often ask which medical they need for the flying they intend to do. It is a reasonable question with a slightly unhelpful answer: the medical follows the licence, not the flight.

A LAPL medical supports a LAPL. Exercising PPL privileges requires a Class 2, even on a gentle local flight in a two seat aeroplane.

The two standards

Class 2 is the medical for private pilot licences. It is issued by an aeromedical examiner and assessed against a defined standard covering vision, hearing, cardiovascular health and neurological history, among other things.

The LAPL medical supports the light aircraft pilot licence. It is assessed against a less demanding standard, based on general medical practice, and in some Member States it may be issued by a general practitioner rather than an AME. Whether your own GP can do it depends on your country, so check before booking.

The distinction is not about how safe you feel. It is about which licence you hold.

The birthday traps

Both certificates shorten as you get older, and the change does not wait for your certificate to expire.

A certificate issued before your fortieth birthday does not run a full five years if that would carry it past your forty-second. It stops there instead. The same pattern applies around fifty for a Class 2.

The practical consequence is that a certificate issued at 39 is not a five year certificate, and pilots who assume it is arrive at a booking with an expired medical. The date printed on the certificate is the only one that matters. Diarise that, not the interval.

The most common medical problem in general aviation is not a diagnosis. It is an expiry date nobody looked at.

Choosing between them

If you hold a PPL, there is no choice to make. You need a Class 2.

The question is real for pilots deciding which licence to pursue, and for those whose health makes a Class 2 uncertain. A LAPL with its own medical is a genuine route to flying rather than a consolation prize, with real limits: lighter aircraft, no instrument privileges, and restrictions on where and what you may fly.

For a pilot who flies locally on good days in a light single, those limits may never bind. For one who wants to fly a four seat tourer across Europe with the family, they will.

If you fail

A Class 2 refusal is not the end of your flying, and treating it as one is a mistake people make in the car park outside the examiner's office.

The LAPL standard is different. Conditions that disqualify at Class 2 do not always disqualify at LAPL level. Equally, some findings lead to a certificate with limitations, such as corrective lenses or a restriction on flying at night, rather than a refusal.

Ask the examiner what specifically caused the finding and what the options are. They have this conversation regularly and are better placed to answer it than a forum.

Before your renewal

Two things save the most trouble.

Book earlier than you think you need to. Appointments with aeromedical examiners are not always available at short notice, and a certificate that lapses stops you flying even if you would have passed.

And read the expiry date on the certificate itself rather than working forwards from the date of issue. That single habit prevents most of the problems in this article.

Clubs cannot hold your medical for you, and should not try. But a club that knows which of its members are approaching a renewal can mention it, and a quiet word in the clubhouse in November has saved a lot of cancelled trips in December.