MauleSkinner
Touchdown! Greaser!
At least we don’t have to habla ze deutsch.Speaking English can be pretty limiting sometimes!
Educate me on the aviation medical debate
- Thread starter SixPapaCharlie
- Start date
Palmpilot
Touchdown! Greaser!
Sehr bien!
Tobias Göller
Pre-takeoff checklist
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- Mar 22, 2022
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- 125
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SCNR
Hi All,
You may have heard of the germanwings airbus being run in to the mountains in europe some years ago. This incident has had the effect that EASA published guidelines how pilots should be tested.
Since several years every pilot in EASA-Space has to fill out a questionaire about his mental health (they originally wanted to to a 4h assessment for each and every pilot.... so we're kinda lucky).
Mental Health and flying has been a well debated topic for a long time. Fact: You can't see into the head of someone. You can't read his mind. And if a person really wants to harm himself (and / or others) he will eventually do so.
People in that state of mind are in a different world - and it's sometimes impossible to see what's going on.
The main problem is where to draw the line. There is no black / white most of the time.
Tobias
You may have heard of the germanwings airbus being run in to the mountains in europe some years ago. This incident has had the effect that EASA published guidelines how pilots should be tested.
Since several years every pilot in EASA-Space has to fill out a questionaire about his mental health (they originally wanted to to a 4h assessment for each and every pilot.... so we're kinda lucky).
Mental Health and flying has been a well debated topic for a long time. Fact: You can't see into the head of someone. You can't read his mind. And if a person really wants to harm himself (and / or others) he will eventually do so.
People in that state of mind are in a different world - and it's sometimes impossible to see what's going on.
The main problem is where to draw the line. There is no black / white most of the time.
Tobias
Pinecone
En-Route
Does a Class 1 or 2 really do anything?
I have a friend who is finishing a career as Regional Captain. Even with a 1st Class and EKG every 6 months, he had a heart attack on final on a revenue flight.
I have a friend who is finishing a career as Regional Captain. Even with a 1st Class and EKG every 6 months, he had a heart attack on final on a revenue flight.
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Velocity173
I know of two pilots who during their physicals serious medical conditions were found. One had AFIB determined by the doc listening to his heart beat and the other actually coughed up blood from a clot.
But yeah, there are plenty of medical conditions that happen after someone has a clean bill of health from a class I/II. Here’s the thing though, I want some sort of mental / physical standard in place for those seeking to fly for hire. I know a guy who had a heart attack and afterwards he was going to try and bypass (no pun) the system to continue flying. Once the FAA got ahold of him and his tests showed an extremely low heart efficiency (post surgery), he was told he’d never get a medical. I have no problem with a flight physical program in place that prevents those types of people from flying.
With all the people that try and bypass the existing standards I have no doubt if there were no medical standards, it would be an absolute mess. In my experience, a lot of pilots will lie, cheat and steal to keep their medicals. They either believe they know better than OK City in what’s safe for flight or they just flat out don’t care and aren’t going to jeopardize their livelihood because of a medical condition. I don’t get it. I’ve flown for 30 years and really don’t care if I have to “hang up my wings.” My health is more important than a job.
OneCharlieTango
Cleared for Takeoff
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OneCharlieTango
This just shows how the FAA medical situation creates a huge disincentive for pilots to get medical care. Maybe it's indigestion. Maybe it's coronary disease. Maybe it's esophageal cancer.
If it's coronary disease or esophageal cancer, I'll lose my medical. I'm going to take Maalox and see how it goes.
When you say it would be an absolute mess without medical standards, you imply that it isn't an absolute mess now. BasicMed, without the requirement for a prior Class III, would accomplish much more than the current system does.
Define what the mess is. If the data at the link is accurate, less than 10% of medical applications across all categories end up with an SI, and most SIs appear (at a glance) to be for hypertension followed by alcohol/drugs.
Not everyone has a medical history that can be certified but it appears most applicants do.
Can’t account for what’s unreported or denials, but like most things the loudest complainers are a small minority.
I went from a DoD medical to FAA medical to BasicMed, and likely will go back to an FAA medical in the near future, even though I know I have a CACI item and the FAA will want a recent Derm FBSE and likely want a current cardio workup despite a clean workup on my 2019 medical.
It is what it is, but other than a bruce stress test, this is stuff I don annually already.