DUI medical waiting times and help from AOPA

Sergey Serebrennikov

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Jul 18, 2016
Messages
4
Location
Alaska
Display Name

Display name:
Sergey
Hello,

I started flying with an instructor in January 2016. I went for the physical in February. My medical was deferred to the FAA for a prior DWI in New York 3 years ago. 3 weeks after my physical, I received a letter from the FAA asking to submit my DWI paperwork, including a psychiatric evaluation. I went through the evaluation, and submitted all the other documents in April.

It has been over three months since I submitted documents to the FAA, but I am not getting anything back from them. I call them every week asking for status, but they keep telling me that my file is "in line for a review". In the meantime I have accumulated over 50 hours of dual while waiting for the medical. My flight instructor is getting bored.

Is it normal to wait this long for them to review your file? I am considering asking AOPA legal services for help. If I ask AOPA for help, can it potentially aggravate the situation and hurt my case?

Sergey.
 
Last edited:
Well we have a new law in place. However with the referral you are going to have to deal with it by complying with the FAA. Once you receive your medical then you can follow new rules and not get it again. The best suggestion I could give is call Dr Bruce Chien. Be 100% candid with him with everything. If he catches you in a lie he will drop you like a bag of rocks. If anyone can help you - he can. He's helped MANY on this board. Again - be straight up with him. http://www.aeromedicaldoc.com/ Good luck
 
Mind telling exactly what "docs" they requested?
 
From what I gather from Dr. Bruce's contributions to various forums, 120 days is not an uncommon time frame for cases requiring the upper level doctors approval to make it to the front of the queue. And uour case is likely one of these.

Many applications can be formatted for the lower level minions to handle. But some of the narlier special issuances and many of the drug/alcohol related applications must be approved by the 5-6 MD's who are doing the workload of 10-11 docs.

Have you asked your AME to make a phone call in your behalf?

In the meantime keep working with the instructor to sharpen all of your flying skills and knowledge to the ACS standards. Then when you do receive your medical certificate, you can knock out the solo activities in a few weeks and schedule the DPE.
 
Have you asked your AME to make a phone call in your behalf?

The AME was only involved in the initial examination, after that, I followed the advise of the FAA letter and contacted a local HIMS doctor that referred me to the psychiatrist for the evaluation, and then sent my documents to the FAA. I asked HIMS doctor to follow up with the FAA on my behalf, by he couldn't find out any more information than I did.

I contacted AOPA today just to find out that FAA seems to be backlogged and that waiting for 3+ months is not unusual, but rather normal. On the bright side I did a bunch of landings in 18 mile x-wind today.
 
I went to the AME in May and my medical was deferred for any eye issue I have. I called every week for a status update and the first four weeks I got the same "in line for review" status. Then it was "under review" for the next three weeks until they issued it.
 
I'm in a similar boat. Dr. B is handling my case, all info submitted back in March. Expecting approval sometime in August (not joking, that's the word from the FAA through Dr. B.). It can take a long time for alcohol/substance and/or psych cases.
 
1st class medicals get routed thru DC. It's summer ... 4 months +-
 
Recent update is that AOPA told me that recently they haven't been able to help with these delays, and advised me to seek help elsewhere. The FAA told me that such waiting time is normal.
 
Last edited:
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top