The CASA Class 1 medical certificate lets you exercise the privileges of commercial and airline pilot and flight engineer licences in Australia. A designated aviation medical examiner (DAME) examines you, and CASA's aviation medicine team decides the outcome, sometimes with conditions attached. The certificate costs a $75 CASA processing fee, is valid for one year unless otherwise advised, and the practical preparation is a documentation audit: declare every condition and medication, and bring current reports for each.
What the Class 1 medical certificate covers
A Class 1 medical certificate is required to exercise the privileges of commercial and airline transport pilot licences and flight engineer licences in Australia.
Pilots and air traffic controllers must hold a current medical certificate to exercise the privileges of their licence, and the class you need reflects your licence type. You need a Class 1 certificate to exercise the privileges of an air transport pilot licence, a commercial pilot licence (other than balloons), a multi-crew pilot (aeroplane) licence, a flight engineer licence and a student flight engineer licence.
There is some flexibility at the margins: commercial and air transport pilot licence holders can perform certain operations on a Class 2 certificate. CASA also generally grants a Class 2 certificate at the same time as a Class 1, and the Class 2 may remain valid for longer, which matters when your Class 1 lapses between annual examinations.
- Air transport pilot licence (aeroplane and helicopter)
- Commercial pilot licence, other than balloons
- Multi-crew pilot (aeroplane) licence
- Flight engineer licence and student flight engineer licence
Sources checked: Classes 1 to 3 medical certificates | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Page last updated 17 Jun 2026
Who assesses you, and how the decision is made
A DAME performs the examination, CASA's aviation medicine team reviews your conditions, medications and health status, and CASA delegates decide whether to issue the certificate.
Your medical examiner and CASA's AvMed team assess your medical conditions, medications and health status, and CASA delegates then decide whether you gain a medical certificate for your licence type. A medical issue does not automatically disqualify you: in most cases you can still gain a certificate even when a medical issue is present, with CASA's delegates managing risk through conditions on the certificate.
The medical standard itself sits in CASR Part 67. If you do not meet a standard, the certificate can still be issued subject to a condition describing what makes your status acceptable, and it must carry a note that the holder does not meet the relevant medical standard. Sensitive conditions may instead be described in a dated letter referenced on the certificate. Before you start flying, CASA also recommends discussing any medical conditions with a suitably qualified medical practitioner, such as a DAME, and with your flying school instructor — which matters most if you plan to become a professional pilot.
Sources checked: Classes 1 to 3 medical certificates | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Page last updated 17 Jun 2026; CASA Aviation Medicine Examiner Handbook, V6.1 (December 2025) — Chapter 6: Medical Tests and Requirements for Medical Certificates
Validity, fees and processing times
A Class 1 certificate is valid for one year unless otherwise advised, the CASA processing fee is $75, and the standard assessment time is 20 business days from a complete application.
The $75 fee is a CASA processing charge, separate from your DAME's consultation costs, which you arrange privately. You pay it in CASA's Medical Records System (MRS) through myCASA before you can submit, and the fee depends on the class, not on whether the application is an initial issue or a renewal. If you apply for multiple classes in the same application, you pay a single $75 fee.
The current service delivery standard is 20 business days, counted from the moment CASA has both your payment and all documentation it needs. Where an application is complete and needs no further tests or specialist reports, processing currently takes up to four weeks. Complex cases referred to Complex Case Management can take an additional three to four weeks, and applications needing extra test results or specialist reports average around 50 days from the initial application, largely because of waiting time for those documents.
| Item | Verified detail |
|---|---|
| Class 1 validity | One year, unless otherwise advised |
| CASA processing fee | $75.00, paid in MRS before submission |
| Standard processing | 20 business days from payment plus complete documentation |
| Complete, simple application | Up to 4 weeks |
| Complex or incomplete applications | Around 50 days on average, longer if Complex Case Management applies |
Sources checked: Classes 1 to 3 medical certificates | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Page last updated 17 Jun 2026; Medical certificate fees, payments and processing | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Application processing fees; Processing times
The health checks the handbook covers
The Examiner Handbook organises Class 1 testing by body system and named investigation; know which of these apply to you before the appointment.
Chapter 6 of the Examiner Handbook sets out the medical tests and requirements for aviation medical assessments. For Class 1 applicants the listed areas include cardiovascular testing, blood pressure, hearing, visual acuity and colour vision, office urinalysis, spirometry, sleep apnoea risk, and tests for alcohol and other drugs. Additional tests apply specifically to Class 1 and 3 assessments, with a further section for Class 1 ATPL holders aged over 60.
This guide explains only the checks whose rules appear in the retrieved guidance. For the detailed clinical thresholds in the remaining areas, read the handbook chapter itself or ask your DAME which age-related tests apply to your examination — CASA's own advice is to check this before you attend.
- Cardiovascular: ECGs at specified intervals, blood pressure, cardiac risk assessment
- Vision: visual acuity assessment and colour vision screening
- Hearing tests
- Office urine analysis
- Spirometry and sleep apnoea risk assessment
- Tests for alcohol and other drugs
Sources checked: CASA Aviation Medicine Examiner Handbook, V6.1 (December 2025) — Chapter 6: Medical Tests and Requirements for Medical Certificates; Medical certificate fees, payments and processing | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Application processing fees; Processing times
Cardiovascular checks and cardiac risk timing
Routine ECGs apply at specified intervals for Class 1 certification, and cardiac risk is calculated on a fixed age-based schedule that starts at your initial examination.
Routine ECGs are required at specified intervals for Class 1 and Class 3 certification, and may also be ordered on clinical grounds for any class at the examiner's or CASA's discretion. Your DAME interprets the trace, or refers it to a cardiologist, and records any safety-relevant abnormalities against CASA's ECG interpretation guide.
Cardiac risk follows a schedule you can plan around: it is calculated at your initial medical examination, then at the first examination after age 25, then every five years until age 60, and annually thereafter. For Class 1 and 3 applicants the calculation is produced automatically in MRS using the NZ PREDICT calculator. The inputs include your age, systolic blood pressure, fasting lipid profile, assessments for diabetes, chronic kidney disease and atrial fibrillation, your medication list and relevant family history — so arrive with those current rather than estimated.
Practice task
You attend your initial Class 1 medical examination at age 24. According to CASA's schedule, when is your next cardiovascular risk calculation, and what pattern follows?
Show answer
At your first medical examination after you turn 25, then every five years until age 60, and annually from then on.
The handbook requires cardiac risk to be calculated at the initial examination, then at the first examination after age 25, then every five years until age 60, and annually thereafter. Your age-24 exam supplies the initial calculation. The next one happens at whichever exam comes first after your 25th birthday, and the five-year cycle runs from that exam, not from your birthday, so the exact dates depend on your examination schedule. For Class 1 applicants the calculation happens automatically in MRS.
Sources checked: CASA Aviation Medicine Examiner Handbook, V6.1 (December 2025) — Chapter 6: Medical Tests and Requirements for Medical Certificates
Vision standards and the colour vision pathway
Vision correction, if required, must be worn while flying with a standby pair of spectacles carried, and colour vision follows a defined sequence of tests with set scoring rules.
If you do not meet the distance vision standard without correction, your certificate carries a condition requiring correction to be worn while exercising your licence privileges. You must then carry two pairs of correction: one worn in flight and one immediately available as standby, and Part 67 requires the standby correction to be spectacles in all cases. That means either contact lenses plus one spare pair of glasses, or two pairs of glasses.
Colour vision assessment runs in tiers. The second tier uses the Farnsworth lantern or OPTEC 900, administered by an optometrist or ophthalmologist: you are shown nine pairs of lights and name each colour as red, green or white. Naming all nine correctly in the first run passes outright; any first-run errors trigger exactly two more runs, and you pass if the combined errors across those two runs total no more than two. Only three runs are ever considered, so a fourth attempt is not permitted. Further pathways include the CAD test with set pass thresholds and the operational AOCVA — and note that an applicant who fails the AOCVA is not eligible to subsequently attempt the CAD test. Where a colour vision deficiency is present, CASA may require specialist ophthalmology assessment and repeat testing to confirm there has been no safety-relevant change from disease or treatment.
Practice task
An applicant takes a Farnsworth lantern test. In the first run of nine pairs she makes one error, in the second run she makes one error, and in the third run she names every light correctly. Does she pass this tier of colour vision assessment?
Show answer
Yes. She passes the Farnsworth lantern test.
Because she made an error in the first run, she does not pass outright and instead proceeds to the two additional runs, which is exactly what happened. The pass rule for those runs is a combined total of no more than two errors, and her run-two plus run-three errors total one, so she passes. The first-run error does not count against that total. Only the first three runs of nine pairs may be considered and a fourth run is never permitted, so nothing further can change the result at this tier. Had she failed, her options would have been a certificate with colour vision restrictions or progressing to the next assessment level.
Sources checked: CASA Aviation Medicine Examiner Handbook, V6.1 (December 2025) — Chapter 6: Medical Tests and Requirements for Medical Certificates
Declaring your history, medications and past events
Declare every condition, medication and past event with dated supporting evidence, and never change medication around the assessment without medical advice.
The strongest preparation for the systems not detailed above — neurological, psychiatric and ENT history — is documentation rather than study. For any past event such as a blackout, head injury, seizure or vertigo episode, write a dated account covering the circumstances, what happened, how long it lasted, how you recovered and what medical review followed. Bring any specialist letters, prescription records and your most recent review for each declared condition, so the examiner assesses current evidence instead of reconstructing your history during the appointment.
Keep taking all prescribed medication exactly as directed and discuss any concerns with your prescriber; changes made without medical input create exactly the uncertainty the review is trying to resolve. If you are unsure whether something counts as a medical condition worth declaring, raise it with your DAME when booking — an over-declared, well-documented history is a straightforward discussion, while an omitted item that later surfaces in records is not.
Sources checked: Classes 1 to 3 medical certificates | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Page last updated 17 Jun 2026
How to avoid processing delays
Pay before submitting, confirm required tests in advance, and remember the 20-day clock starts only when CASA holds every document it needs.
CASA names the main causes of delay directly: no payment received, waiting for additional tests to be completed and results received, and waiting for specialist reports. Pay the required fee in MRS before submitting, and check with your DAME whether additional age-related tests are required for this medical before the appointment.
Because the processing time runs from receipt of the last required piece of documentation, a single missing report resets the wait. If your certificate expires within two weeks and you are concerned the assessment will not finish in time, contact CASA rather than waiting.
Sources checked: Medical certificate fees, payments and processing | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Application processing fees; Processing times
Your preparation checklist
Work through the certificate logistics and the per-system evidence audit, then confirm anything uncertain directly with CASA or your DAME.
A short checklist covers both the administrative and the documentary sides of the appointment. Complete it in the week before your examination, not the day of it.
- Confirm you need Class 1 for your licence type, and that your Class 2 will be issued alongside it
- Check with your DAME whether age-related additional tests apply to this examination
- Pay the $75 processing fee in MRS before submitting
- Draft a dated account for any past medical event, with specialist letters and prescription records attached
- Bring your current vision correction plus a spare pair of glasses, if you wear correction
- List every medication with dose and prescriber, and change nothing before the assessment without medical advice
- Plan follow-up time in case additional tests or reports are requested
Sources checked: Classes 1 to 3 medical certificates | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Page last updated 17 Jun 2026; CASA Aviation Medicine Examiner Handbook, V6.1 (December 2025) — Chapter 6: Medical Tests and Requirements for Medical Certificates; Medical certificate fees, payments and processing | Civil Aviation Safety Authority — Application processing fees; Processing times
Sources checked
Key facts verified against CASA sources: