Becoming an FAA Aviation Medical Examiner is a sequence, not a single test. You apply through the Designee Management System, must hold an MD or DO, and are contacted only if your area needs another AME. Once your region approves you, complete the MCSPT and CAPAME online courses, then attend the 4.5-day AME Basic Seminar in Oklahoma City. After designation, refresher training recurs every 36 months and seminar attendance every 72 months. Keep each step in order and confirm current requirements with your Regional Flight Surgeon's office.
What an FAA Aviation Medical Examiner does
An AME is a physician designated by the FAA to perform medical examinations for pilots, air traffic controllers, and other aviation professionals who must be medically qualified to serve.
Medical certification of U.S. airmen dates back to the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which required pilots to be medically qualified to fly. The FAA describes the AME as a key element in the aviation safety formula because every crewmember must be physically qualified for the aviation environment.
Most of the work is routine physical examination, but your applicants are pilots, air traffic controllers, and other aviation professionals rather than a general patient population. Some AMEs also consult for the FAA in specialties such as cardiology, neurology, or psychiatry, review cases that may qualify for special issuance, present at aviation seminars, or help determine whether acutely ill patients can be safely transported by air.
Before diving into requirements, it helps to know that this is a designation attached to your existing medical practice, not a federal job. That distinction shapes the application process, the fees, and the legal footing described later in this guide.
Who can apply and how the application works
You must be a physician (MD or DO) and apply through the FAA's online Designee Management System. The FAA contacts you only if your clinic's area needs an additional AME, and you must refresh your application at least once a year to stay on the selection list.
The entry point is the Designee Management System (DMS), the FAA's online portal for designee registration and approvals. Your application lists your clinic address because selection depends on regional need: the FAA states you will be contacted only if there is a need for an additional AME in that area.
Two timing rules are easy to miss. First, update your application at least once per year, or it goes inactive on the selection list. Second, do not complete any training courses before you have applied through DMS and your FAA region has approved you to attend training — early course completion does not put you ahead in the queue.
If your application is selected, the training requirements described in the next sections must be completed before you can be designated.
- Apply through the Designee Management System as an MD or DO
- Update the application at least annually to remain active
- Wait for regional approval before starting any training courses
- Direct questions to your Regional Flight Surgeon's office
Official sources: Become an AME | Federal Aviation Administration — Requirements To Become An AME; last updated December 3, 2024; Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) Training — A Guide for Prospective FAA Aviation Medical Examiners — FAQ sections on fees, medical-legal implications, and AME activities; last updated August 21, 2024; AME Online Training | Federal Aviation Administration — Prerequisite and refresher course requirements; last updated October 4, 2022
Online prerequisites before the seminar
Approved applicants must complete two online courses — the Medical Certification Standards and Procedures Training (MCSPT) and the Clinical Aerospace Physiology Review for AMEs (CAPAME) — before attending a Basic AME Seminar.
The FAA is explicit that these prerequisites must be finished before a physician can be invited to the Basic Seminar. Both courses run online and were developed by the FAA's Aerospace Medical Education Division.
CAPAME also carries Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit, and you may take it at any time for CME once you are an AME. But its role in your designation path is fixed: it is one of the two gates before the seminar, and the FAA states it cannot substitute for seminar training.
Sign-in and account help for the online training is available from the AME Training Help Desk by phone or email.
Official sources: Become an AME | Federal Aviation Administration — Requirements To Become An AME; last updated December 3, 2024; AME Online Training | Federal Aviation Administration — Prerequisite and refresher course requirements; last updated October 4, 2022
Inside the AME Basic Seminar
The Basic Seminar is a 4.5-day in-person course in Oklahoma City focused on preparing physicians for AME designation, with priority given to applicants submitted by Regional Flight Surgeons.
The FAA publishes a rolling seminar schedule. Recent and upcoming Basic seminars run Monday through Friday patterns such as September 21–25, 2026; March 1–5, June 21–25, and September 13–17, 2027, all in Oklahoma City. Dates are added ahead of time, so the schedule page is the authoritative source for your planning.
Registration runs through your DMS account, and prospective AMEs who are not yet designated must request and receive prior approval to register — typically from the Aerospace Medical Education Division or the FAA regional office for your locality. The FAA also recommends making travel and lodging reservations refundable, since an in-person seminar can be rescheduled as virtual with little notice.
The schedule page also lists refresher and specialty seminar types (including CAMA and AsMA options), but those serve already-designated AMEs meeting recurrent training requirements — not the initial designation path.
| Seminar type | Length | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 4.5 days | Prepares physicians for designation as Aviation Medical Examiners; held in Oklahoma City |
| Refresher | 2.5 days | AME-specific subjects; fulfills the recurrent seminar training requirement for current AMEs |
| AsMA specialty | 3.5 days | Held with the Aerospace Medical Association; fulfills recurrent training; registration through AsMA |
| CAMA | 3 days | FAA-sanctioned, sponsored by the Civil Aviation Medical Association; fulfills recurrent training |
Official sources: AME Seminar Schedule | Federal Aviation Administration — 2026 and 2027 schedules; Seminar Types; last updated September 2, 2026
Refresher rules after designation
Once designated, you must complete refresher training every 36 months and attend an AME seminar every 72 months. The online MAMERC 3.0 course can extend a seminar's effect by 36 months, but CAPAME never substitutes for seminar attendance.
The cycle works like this: AME refresher training is required every 36 months. If you have attended an AME seminar within the last three years, you may complete the Multimedia Aviation Medical Examiner Refresher Course (MAMERC) 3.0 to fulfill a mandatory refresher and extend your seminar attendance by another 36 months. Regardless of MAMERC use, attendance at an AME seminar is required every six years (72 months).
In-person options for meeting the seminar requirement include the FAA's 2.5-day Refresher seminars and the FAA-sanctioned CAMA and AsMA seminars, which fulfill the same recurrent requirement but register through their sponsoring organizations.
The FAA separates training from CME: you can complete MAMERC 3.0 or CAPAME at any time for CME credit, but CME accrual alone does not satisfy the refresher requirement.
Official sources: AME Seminar Schedule | Federal Aviation Administration — 2026 and 2027 schedules; Seminar Types; last updated September 2, 2026; AME Online Training | Federal Aviation Administration — Prerequisite and refresher course requirements; last updated October 4, 2022
Fees, legal status, and practical realities
The FAA has not set a fee schedule for AME examinations — fees should match similar local services. AMEs are not federal employees, are not covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act, but can obtain FAA legal advice for medical certification issues.
On compensation, the FAA's guidance is that it expects AME fees to be commensurate with fees for similar services in your locality of practice; there is no federal fee schedule. Separate from that, the FAA notes that any registration fees for the specialty CAMA and AsMA seminars are charged by those organizations, not the FAA.
On legal standing, AMEs are not federal employees and are not entitled to Federal Tort Claims Act protection. If a medical-legal problem arises, you can obtain FAA legal advice and counsel through your Regional Flight Surgeon, with a regional FAA attorney available for further assistance. If you need individual representation, you provide your own attorney. The FAA notes that adhering to its medical certification policies and procedures keeps litigation exposure low.
These points rarely change how you prepare, but they are worth knowing before you apply: the designation adds FAA-linked duties to an independent practice.
Official sources: Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) Training — A Guide for Prospective FAA Aviation Medical Examiners — FAQ sections on fees, medical-legal implications, and AME activities; last updated August 21, 2024; AME Seminar Schedule | Federal Aviation Administration — 2026 and 2027 schedules; Seminar Types; last updated September 2, 2026
Your path in order: checklist and practice
The designation path runs: DMS application, regional approval, MCSPT and CAPAME, Basic Seminar attendance, then designation — followed by 36-month refresher cycles.
Each step gates the next. You cannot take courses before regional approval, and you cannot be invited to the seminar before the prerequisites are done. Use the checklist below to track your own progress, then test yourself with the ordering exercise.
Practice exercise
A physician friend hands you her to-do list in random order and asks what to do first. The items are: (A) complete the CAPAME course, (B) submit an application in the Designee Management System, (C) attend the AME Basic Seminar in Oklahoma City, (D) complete the MCSPT course, (E) receive approval from the appropriate FAA region to attend training. Arrange the items in the correct order and name the one action she must NOT do early.
Show answer
Correct order: B, E, D, A, C. The action she must not do early is completing the courses (D or A) — the FAA says not to complete courses before submitting a DMS application and receiving regional approval to attend training.
The FAA's own sequence governs every link. An application in DMS comes first, and the FAA contacts applicants only where the area needs an AME. Regional approval must precede any training courses. Both prerequisites — MCSPT and CAPAME — must be completed before the physician can be invited to the Basic Seminar, and seminar attendance is required before designation. Reversing any pair (for example, taking MCSPT before approval) violates the stated rule, and the seminar cannot precede its prerequisites because invitation depends on them.
- Confirm you hold an MD or DO
- Submit your application in the Designee Management System with your clinic address
- Update the application at least annually while you wait
- Receive approval from your FAA region before any coursework
- Complete MCSPT and CAPAME online
- Register through DMS for a Basic Seminar in Oklahoma City with refundable travel
- Attend the full 4.5-day seminar and complete any remaining designation requirements
- After designation, track your 36-month refresher and 72-month seminar deadlines
Official sources: Become an AME | Federal Aviation Administration — Requirements To Become An AME; last updated December 3, 2024; AME Online Training | Federal Aviation Administration — Prerequisite and refresher course requirements; last updated October 4, 2022
Official sources
Facts checked against FAA pages: