Lost my Medical...

[bahama flier]

A two day stay for a simple tumor removal at a hospital turned into a four major surgeries and a 56 day stay.

My Medical has expired, and it looks like a long recovery and a mountain of paperwork to fly my AP again.

The thought of giving up my plane is very depressing, but I will fight for it till the last battle.

 

[AggieMike88]

Health first, fly later. So good to hear you're back on the road to good health.


As far as the medical, it might not be as bad as you think. You just need to hitch up with a good "difficult case" senior AME, get from him the list of documentation required, and start rounding it up.

Get that done promptly and you might be back behind the yoke faster than you think.

 

[docmirror]

Expired is a lot better than revoked, or denied. Light Sport beckons you. Just remember, once you hit 'send' on the form, you better get approval or you're left with ultralights and sailplanes.

 

[KeithASanford]

If you proceed, your best case scenario will be that, like me, you can fly under Special Issuance. Your worst case scenario, however, will be you can fly ultralights. Give it some serious thought how you want to proceed. Sport Pilot is not a bad way to stay in the air.

If you decide to proceed, the resident FAA Medical soothsayer, Dr. Bruce Chien can help. Find him, do what he says and hope for the best.

 

[ejensen]

Expired is a lot better than revoked, or denied. Light Sport beckons you. Just remember, once you hit 'send' on the form, you better get approval or you're left with ultralights and sailplanes.

^this. It's what I decided to do. Sold the Mooney. Still flying - 120K vs 160K vs 50k in traffic.

 

[Scott@KTYR]

Sorry to hear about your med. problem.
Hang in there!

 

[N801BH]

Glad you are healing up.. 56 days in the hospital will just about kill most people...

 

[pigpenracing]

Go buy a Cub and don't try for a medical. I fly my Cub more than my Pitts 12 or Cessna and love it.... Everyone loves the Cub.

 

[Everskyward]

I would at least consult with an AME who specializes in difficult cases. They will be able to give you an opinion on your chances for certification. Just make sure it's only a consultation and not an application for a medical.

 

[ejensen]

I would at least consult with an AME who specializes in difficult cases. They will be able to give you an opinion on your chances for certification. Just make sure it's only a consultation and not an application for a medical.

Exactly. Spend thousands to apply with no guarantees. Unexplained loss of consciousness. I fainted for reasons my doc and I accept but expensive to prove to FAA.

 

[Everskyward]

Exactly. Spend thousands to apply with no guarantees. Unexplained loss of consciousness. I fainted for reasons my doc and I accept but expensive to prove to FAA.

It seems unfair that people who have less serious conditions, such as you and Nick, have more problems providing FAA proof than people like me, who have had much more serious and unusual conditions than fainting or kidney stones (but less serious than 56 days in the hospital).

I had to take a six-month leave of absence because my first class expired, plus I was in no condition to be flying an airplane anyway. But I was able to obtain an first class SI after that six months and returned to an unrestricted medical after a year. I will say that I used Dr. Chien and we knew before I applied for the SI that I would be approved. I don't think I paid anything extra for FAA required tests since I was getting so many tests anyway. Insurance covered the whole cost because I was past my out-of-pocket for the year. This may be the situation with the OP too.

 

[ejensen]

It seems unfair that people who have less serious conditions, such as you and Nick, have more problems providing FAA proof than people like me, who have had much more serious and unusual conditions than fainting or kidney stones (but less serious than 56 days in the hospital).

I had to take a six-month leave of absence because my first class expired, plus I was in no condition to be flying an airplane anyway. But I was able to obtain an first class SI after that six months and returned to an unrestricted medical after a year. I will say that I used Dr. Chien and we knew before I applied for the SI that I would be approved. I don't think I paid anything extra for FAA required tests since I was getting so many tests anyway. Insurance covered the whole cost because I was past my out-of-pocket for the year. This may be the situation with the OP too.

Yes, better to have something actually worse but concrete. Hard to prove a negative.

 

[bnt83]

There was about a year gap from recovery to actually being interested in flying again but it took about 70 days to get issued after basically dying. Prior to the basically dying thing I've fought a bleeding disorder for about 20 years treated with steroids, chemotherapy, luck, bad luck, had a medical certificate revoked. Had a medical certificate issued again, let it expire, the list goes on....

I let it expire again only because the airplane is in pieces and I'm not in a hurry to finish it.