In October of 2025, recreational aviation got a massive shot in the arm from the FAA in the form of a new set of laws called MOSAIC. If it goes as planned, it will open doors to safer, and hopefully more affordable, flying for many people in the United States.

What is MOSAIC, you ask? Well, if the insurance industry cooperates, it could be the aviation rule that allows me to fly factory-built General Aviation aircraft even though I’ve been diagnosed, and take medication for, ADHD. It stands for the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification, and it has been a project of aviation organizations such as EAA, AOPA, and the FAA for about a decade. It’s an expansive rule that, among other things, seeks to open up flying opportunities for Sport Pilots by expanding the types of aircraft they can fly. Sport Pilots are a relatively new category of pilot, limited to flying Light-Sport aircraft (LSAs), which feature low stall speeds, lower gross weight, and are limited to 1 passenger. The benefits of becoming a Sport Pilot instead of a Private Pilot are two-fold: One benefit is a shorter training time (20 hours minimum instead of 40 hours minimum) and the ability to fly without an FAA medical certificate. Like most pilots in the USA, I am not a Sport Pilot. I have sadly spent way too much time and money on obtaining my Commercial and Multi-Engine certificates and an Instrument Rating that I haven’t used in years. However, there is one MASSIVE benefit to downgrading myself to Sport Pilot, and that is the Driver’s License Medical. Yes, I decided to capitalize that, because it is so important. Even though I hold higher pilot certificates, I can “operate as a Sport Pilot” and use my driver’s license in lieu of a medical certificate, as long as I adhere to the restrictions placed upon that license. Namely, carriage of myself and only one passenger, daytime VFR, and an airplane that meets the stall speed requirements.

Before today, Sport Pilots and other pilots who allowed their FAA medical certificates to expire were allowed to fly Light-Sport aircraft and a few standard-category factory-built aircraft that fit within the performance limitations of Light-Sport aircraft (mostly older designs such as Cubs, Champs, & Chiefs). The problem was that very few flight schools and FBOs had an aircraft available for rent that fit the limitations of an LSA. When I worked for Jabiru USA, an LSA manufacturer in Tennessee, we were always trying to sell our aircraft to flight schools as trainers, but they faced many obstacles. They were expensive and high-tech compared to the typical older Cessna or Piper trainers. They had a “weird” engine (the Aussie-built Jabiru engine) that mechanics weren’t keen on learning. And they were restricted to VFR conditions only, so a student couldn’t rent them for IFR training in the clouds. Flight schools find it inefficient to have aircraft on the line for Sport Pilot training that can’t also fulfill the training requirements for higher certificates. But today, the MOSAIC rule has expanded the aircraft list for Sport Pilots to include many more single-engine factory-built and kit aircraft! The rule eliminates the gross weight and cruise speed requirements in favor of a simpler definition that includes bigger, faster aircraft than the original LSA rules. In theory, with my Commercial Single-Engine pilot certificate and valid Driver’s License as a medical certificate, I should be able to go down to the local flight school and rent a CESSNA 172! What school doesn’t have an old 172 available? Now… I’m sure the insurance companies might have some qualms about renting faster and heavier aircraft to pilots without an FAA medical certificate. That’s something that will manifest over the next several months, if it’s an issue. But for now I’m hopeful that I won’t have to clip my wings quite so severely.

Even when given to a child, an ADHD diagnosis is basically a deal-breaker for ever flying as a commercial pilot. (And if your kid is into airplanes, please PLEASE do not agree to an ADHD diagnosis unless you and multiple doctors are 100% CONFIDENT in the diagnosis AND the diagnosis will help them function!) The FAA mandates that in order to obtain a medical certificate, a person who has been diagnosed with ADHD must not have had any symptoms of it AND has been off of medication for 6 months. I’ve heard some pilots say they were diagnosed as a kid and “outgrew it.” Well folks, this is outdated thinking about ADHD and it’s just not possible. Those people who think they outgrew it were probably never correctly diagnosed in the first place. ADHD is the way our brain is wired. It’s not something that is “curable,” it is something we just deal with. And medication REALLY helps us to deal with it! For me, ADHD medication has been transformational. I mean… last month I was sitting over there on my couch as a non-functional doom-scrolling potato, but now I’m working on my research daily and designing my new career as a… writer? Editor? ADHD coach?? Yeah… this stuff works!

But I must say something really important. For years, I have silently battled anxiety and depression (and, unknowingly, ADHD), and I was afraid to seek help for it BECAUSE I knew it would open a massive can of worms with the FAA. As a general rule, any kind of diagnosis and medication for mental issues is a grounding offense, and could be career-ending. Wanna know why the “Drunken Airline Pilot” is such a popular stereotype? Because it’s freaking true. We self-medicate with alcohol because it’s the only legal way many of us can cope with whatever anxiety is in our lives without losing our medical certificate. And the FAA’s prohibition of medication for anxiety and depression is not just limited to chronic cases… it also applies to temporary periods of distress when pilots go through a divorce, lose a family member, get into financial trouble, or whatever. It’s natural stuff every person goes through at some point in their lives. A normal person could go to their doctor and be prescribed a short term of anti-anxiety medication to get them through a tough time. But pilots? NOPE. Hit the bottle, my friend. Just don’t drink less than 8 hours before you fly and don’t show up with a BAC of more than .04 and you’re golden! Nevermind the underlying issues CAUSING the stress, the resulting performance degradation, sleep deprivation, alcohol dependence, serotonin depletion, potential liver disease, a kaleidoscope of cancers… yeah, no worries mate. Have a drink with me when we get to the hotel! There are currently some movements afoot to help alleviate this terrible paradox in FAA medical standards, such as the Pilot Mental Health Campaign and the Mental Health in Aviation Act. You can read about those here.

So anyway, back to my ADHD story. (Trust me, there’s a connection here). I haven’t flown in several years, choosing instead to go for a corporate office job. Last year, I decided that I had had enough of the daily corporate BS. I was a tech support person at a major avionics company. My day consisted of researching and answering between 10 and 20 email questions while being continuously interrupted by customer phone calls and coworkers with questions about my avionics system of expertise. In addition to being continuously frustrated with engineering with no support from management and too exhausted to work on my research, I was also annoyed at being in the office. They required us to work in the office 3 days per week, which required me to live close to the office… which meant I had to live in the suburbs. I hated the suburbs. I hated the noise, especially. I absolutely love being outside in my yard, but I couldn’t do it there without noises driving me nuts. Children screaming (no really– LITERALLY screaming, all day, in a pool, with their nasty mother yelling obscenities at them), lawn mowers, leaf blowers, insufferable dog owners who let their dogs bark all hours (it’s not the dog’s fault they’re being neglected…), busy traffic, nearly dying on my way to and from work, all for a job that could easily be done 100 miles away in a secluded forest cabin with Starlink. Home ownership wasn’t a treat either for someone with barely any savings, a 60-year old house with a deteriorating roof, an HVAC system older than me, and two tiled bathrooms held together with Flex Glue & bubble gum. And the love of my life lived 3 hours away, on a dirt road in a woods. In his camper (it’s a long story)… but in peace & quiet. Who the hell WOULDN’T drink? So I quit my job, sold my house, and lived off the proceeds for a year in a little rental house next to his camper in the woods to focus on finishing my dissertation.

But as I sat here for the past year, with nothing to do other than my full-time research, I felt like I was swimming through honey every day just to get into my writing. I’d put it off, read books about my topic (which actually did help), find other things to do, or just waste time. Some days, the anxiety I felt just thinking about organizing the tremendous volume of literary material that had to go into my dissertation proposal was crushing. Every afternoon I’d resign myself to doing better tomorrow. I would visualize what a perfect day — the NEXT DAY, DAMMIT — would look like: I’d get up early, fix a cup of hot coffee (not an energy drink), open my computer and sit with the screen door open and the birds singing, write something profound, do a little yoga, make a little money from my side gig, make dinner, kiss my boyfriend and be happy. But it rarely happened. I pretended to myself, my advisors, my parents, my sister, and even my wonderful partner that I was doing ok, but deep down, I wasn’t ok. Hell, it wasn’t even deep down anymore– my un-okayness was surging to the surface. I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Despite intentionally getting rid of all my perceived stressors, my mind was a raging peri-menopausal dumpster fire, full of chaos, rapid unfinished thoughts, overwhelming analysis-paralysis, self-doubt and anxiety, still on the verge of falling into alcoholism just to shut my brain up.

Or… 47. Ugh.

Then one day, doom-scrolling paid off. I randomly started getting some familiar-sounding MEMES about neurodivergent thought patterns on my Facebook feed. I thought… hmm… that really sounds like me. Like, REALLY. I found and read a lot of ADHD articles online (ADDitudemag.com is amazing), and texted with one of my closest friends from the old job who has autism and ADHD. It was very clear that I fit the description. How though? I mean, I was a straight-A student? I’m a freaking pilot! With 3 college degrees!! Well… that’s another topic for another blog post, but it really didn’t matter. Girls like us almost always fly under the radar as kids when it comes to ADHD suspicions. Our “hyperactivity” does not manifest itself in things that unruly little boys do in class. It lives inside our brains and our bodies, and we find socially-acceptable ways to mask it so we can fit in and do what people expect us to do.

I spent a few days finding online self-diagnostic quizzes and writing about all the symptoms I’ve dealt with as an adult. Then I pried open the memory vaults to write about the things I struggled with as a child, and the answer was clear. The path before me was split: Let go of the chance of flying again as a commercial pilot (and maybe even a recreational pilot) potentially forever, and get a damn diagnosis and some help… or continue on a path of alcohol overuse, self-doubt, crazy unwell feelings, and failing at this 8-year PhD project. Because if a year’s worth of free time, no money issues, no relationship problems and no external stress can’t free my mind up to work on this thing, SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG! I was finally ready to do something about it. I mean… The last few years of flying as a Light-Sport transition instructor really gave me some anxiety about flying anyway. I had lost most of the spark and the desire. What did I really have to lose? When I eventually get back in the air, it will be in a homebuilt or vintage airplane anyway– doing the simple, fun kind of grassroots flying I really love to do, on my own time, with no FAA medical required.

So I did it. I made an appointment with a psychiatrist, I got a diagnosis, and I’m getting help. And I feel like a new human being. The diagnosis clipped a few feathers that will prohibit me from flying at night and in the clouds, but it did not remove my wings completely; in fact, I’m now riding on a whole new sense of purpose. I hope MOSAIC ends up bringing more types of mainstream rental aircraft into the Sport Pilot fleet. Light-Sport aircraft are really fun to fly, but they are rare finds when it comes to aircraft rental. As fleet availability expands for Sport Pilots, it’s likely that more pilots who fly VFR will consider allowing their FAA medical to expire, which will lead to a better relationship with their doctors. This rule really has the potential to keep more people flying, and that’s exactly what general aviation needs right now.

By the way, if you find yourself in this same boat and want to learn more about MOSAIC and the medical rules, here’s the EAA info page on “Sport Pilot 2.0” and the MOSAIC rule. Linked here is a wonderful webinar put on by my friends from EAA Government Advocacy, Tom Charpentier and Rob Hackman. It answered all of my questions and made me very hopeful for a healthy, medicated future in the sky– not only for myself, but for a lot of other pilots who could soon have a better relationship with their doctors.

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/mosaic-aircraft-certificate