Dr. Helen Hoar

MBChB MSc FRCS AFOM DAvMed DOccMed DMM MRAeS FAsMA

UK CAA and FAA Aviation Medical Examiner

After completing medical training at the University of Birmingham, I spent several years as a trainee surgeon, obtaining Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1997. I subsequently obtained my PPL and took a year out of clinical medicine to obtain my frozen Airline Transport Pilots Licence. After a brief return to medicine, I started flying commercially in 2000, operating the B737-300/400/500 and 700 variants for three airlines in four years. I then flew the B747-400 for a major UK airline between 2004 and 2020. During the pandemic, I flew B747-400 cargo aircraft for a Bermudan-based operator and worked as a medical trainer at RAF Henlow Centre of Aviation Medicine. I am presently a 787 Captain for a UK airline and have accumulated in excess of 15,000 flying hours to date.

I undertook both the basic and advanced aviation medicine courses at King’s College London in 2001, the Diploma in Aviation Medicine (DAvMed) in 2003 and became an AME shortly afterwards.

I have been an AME in Bristol since 2007. In addition, I worked extensively at the Aeromedical Centre, Mater Private Hospital in Dublin between 2009 and 2015 and continue to undertake sessional work at the NATS Aeromedical Centre in Swanwick. I am now able to offer medicals at Haverfordwest Airport.

In addition to my aviation medicine qualifications, I have completed additional postgraduate qualifications in Occupational Medicine and in 2012 was awarded an MSc in Occupational Medicine from the University of Manchester, researching work-related stress in commercial airline pilots. 

I was recently elected a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, am a member of the Aerospace Medicine Group at the Royal Aeronautical Society, a former Chair and member of the BALPA Medical Group (2003-2015), a member of the Specialty Advisory Committee at the Royal College of Physicians for the new specialty of Aviation and Space Medicine and a member of the Executive Council for the International Airline Medical Association (IAMA). I was elected Chair of the UK Association of Aviation Medical Examiners (AAME) from 2019 until 2022. I am a contributing author to the recently published Handbook of Aviation and Space Medicine and the upcoming Ernsting’s Aviation and Space Medicine (6th Edition).

I have a long-held interest in altitude medicine and have participated in a number of high altitude medical research expeditions to the Andes, Alps and the Himalayas and obtained the UIAA Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DMM) in 2006.