Grounded or not?

U

Unregistered

Guest
Flying under SP rule. Had two brief episodes of double vision within three months. Reported these to V.A. doctor after second episode. I also have type 2 diabetes.

V.A. doctor has referred me for an neuro-ophthalmology consult, a neurology consult, and an MRI, "just to be on the safe side." Ophthalmology consult is set for next week, MRI for the end of April, and neurology consult a few days after the MRI.

I do have private insurance, and I probably could get the MRI sooner if I went to a civilian provider. The V.A. doc says it's up to me, but April 29 is soon enough, it won't cost me anything at all if I have it done at the V.A., and it also keeps all the records together. Personally, I also prefer the V.A. care. The quality of care is just better.

In the meantime, the doc has not restricted my driving or activities. But when I asked him specifically if I could continue flying, he said it "might not be a bad idea to stay on the ground" until they identify what's been going on.

So am I grounded or not?

Thanks.
 
§61.53 Prohibition on operations during medical deficiency.



...
(b) Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations provided for in §61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember, while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
§61.53 Prohibition on operations during medical deficiency.



...
(b) Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations provided for in §61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember, while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.
Click to expand...

Plus, the doctor may also be concerned about how flying might aggravate the as-of-yet unknown condition. I wouldn't even fly with a CFI / Safety Pilot until you get clarification on that point.

Thank you for your service. I hope everything works out.

-Rich
 
I agree with Geoffrey and Rich -- you need to sort this out before you fly again. At that point, you need to tell your personal physician about your flying and get him/her to agree that you are once again "able to operate the aircraft in a safe manner".
 
OP here.

The V.A. doctors did pretty much every test they could think of, to check for illnesses I've never even heard of before. What they found was that my eyes are not perfectly aligned, which I kind of knew, but thought was normal. Like, if I alternately close my eyes, the image isn't exactly in the same place. I thought everyone's eyes were like that. Who knew?

The doc said it's not uncommon, but what happens is the brain has to work harder to keep the images converged, and after a while it gets tiring to the brain, especially when you get older. So he prescribed new glasses with "prism" correction, which I guess corrects for the misalignment.

After all the tests they did, they're confident that the misalignment is the problem, and the glasses will be all I need. But they also scheduled annual follow-ups with the neurologist (and I guess the MRI, too), as well as ongoing blood tests just to make sure there are no other problems.

They were concerned about tumors, MS, lupus, graves disease, and a whole bunch of other diseases, some of them I never heard of, none of them sounded like anything I'd want to have. They tested for them and ruled them out, but they want to monitor for degeneration, mainly due to the diabetes. So every three months when I get the A1C they're going to do all the other blood tests, and once a year I have to go back to the big VA hospital for all the specialists to do their thing (neurologist, neuro opthamologist, optometrist, etc.) and to get a picture taken of the inside of my eyeballs so they can compare year-to-year.

They also said the new glasses may take a while to get used to, but once I do, I should be good to go. It turns out that I have other vision problems that need correction, too. Astigmatism different in each eye, and near vision different in each eye. He ordered progressive lenses that should correct for everything so I don't have to keep switching glasses. But they'll take some time to get used to, things will look out of alignment until my brain figures out that the glasses are correcting the alignment, and I shouldn't drive or fly with them until I get used to them.

But at least its just glasses I need, and not brain surgery. I need an alignment. Like a car, lol. But I'm surprised that the docs on base never picked this up during my flight physicals when I was on active duty. But I had 20/10 vision back then. I guess age takes its toll on the eyeballs, along with the rest of my old body.

Anyway, I think it's good news. A new set of specs, a few days to get used to them, and I'll be good to go. That beats brain cancer or MS, for sure. Thanks.
 
Sounds like you've done your due diligence and have no reason to think you cannot safely fly your LSA, and also have a good plan to monitor your condition in the future. Glad it all worked out.
 
Unregistered said:
Like, if I alternately close my eyes, the image isn't exactly in the same place. I thought everyone's eyes were like that. Who knew?
Click to expand...

I would call that normal. I'm sure you have a condition and all that, but our eyes are set on roughly the same plane a few inches away.
Because of that, they each see from a different point of view. They actually see different images. If you close one eye after the other, you should see the image moving a little bit.
When both eyes are open the brain uses this difference to calculate depth (objects closer to you will shift position much more than objects farther away).

Either that, or I'm grounded too :D
 
Johann said:
I would call that normal. I'm sure you have a condition and all that, but our eyes are set on roughly the same plane a few inches away.
Because of that, they each see from a different point of view. They actually see different images. If you close one eye after the other, you should see the image moving a little bit.
When both eyes are open the brain uses this difference to calculate depth (objects closer to you will shift position much more than objects farther away).

Either that, or I'm grounded too :D
Click to expand...

Actually, for most people, the image will only shift when you close one eye, not the other. For me (and I think this is most common), when I close my left eye, the image does not "shift", because I am right-eye dominant. This is most noticeable when you are looking at something very close to your eyes (within a few feet). I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't have a strongly dominant eye, the image may shift slightly for either eye being closed.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Actually, for most people, the image will only shift when you close one eye, not the other. For me (and I think this is most common), when I close my left eye, the image does not "shift", because I am right-eye dominant. This is most noticeable when you are looking at something very close to your eyes (within a few feet). I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't have a strongly dominant eye, the image may shift slightly for either eye being closed.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Close one eye, concentrate on green smiley face on screen, just beyond arm's reach. Open eye, I briefly see two green smileys that move towards each other. Same image regardless of which eye is initially closed, maybe slight variation in initial separation of two images and resulting movement towards each other before they merge.

So am I "different"? Or merely unique, just like everyone else???
 
Just on the basis of... well, no particular knowledge, I'd guess that whether the separation is horizontal or vertical (or both) makes a clinical difference.

To the OP: I'm glad you got this squared away, and that everything seems to have worked out for you.

-Rich
 
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