Medical, Student Cert., and Soloing

M

Murrgh

Pre-Flight
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
34
Location
Virginia
Display Name
Display name:
Murrgh
I started my PPL training towards the start of the year and one of the first things my instructor told me was to get my medical ASAP. What did I do? Waited until the last minute to do so and I regret it every second now...

It all started April 1st... I had the week off from everything and dedicated it to flying as much as I could. I went from 12 hours to 26 hours Monday-Thursday, and on that Thursday my instructor tells me she wants to solo me on Saturday. I agreed, knowing that I needed my medical by then. I called around and was able to get my medical in on Friday, April 5th at a general doctors office and everything went down-hill from there.

I showed up, the receptionist (Probably around 75 years old) had no idea what a "Third-Class Aviation Medical" was, so I just signed in and she told me to wait my turn... but I was the only one there, and only person that had been there since they opened at 8am - according to the sign in sheet. The nurse comes out 10 minutes later and comments on how much she likes my car, how much she loves red, and how she just moved here from some part of Europe. She takes my blood pressure, gives me the worst eye exam I've ever had (she handed me a sheet that was printed on a really old printer, where the font was so small that the printer couldn't print it, so it just looked like black squares). I managed to pull off 20/20 and they gave me a drug test, then told me to wait in a room where the doctor would come talk to me.

So I waited.

Finally the AME walks in, tells me how unsafe it is to fly, tells me stories of him flying, how I need to make sure I know how to land and should spend 15-20hours doing touch and go's and how I would be around 60 hours before I get my PPL. I just went with it and when he was done telling me stories, he gave me my Third Class Medical Certificate. Little did I know that my student certificate wasn't along with it, so I left after paying $120.

Saturday rolls around and I handed my instructor my medical, where she realizes that I wasn't given my Student Certificate even though the 8500-B I filled out on MedXpress stated that that's what I went to the AME for. So we cancelled and I went back to the AME's office on Monday, April 8th and asked the receptionist if she could reprint my medical, but with my student certificate (I didn't know that the AME was the only person who could do this) - and she asked me to show her what I got the last time I was there. She asked what was wrong with the medical certificate that I had so I spent the next 15 minutes explaining that I needed my student certificate. She still didn't understand so I asked to speak to the Doctor, where she said that he was with other patients, so I would have to wait. She didn't put my name down anywhere, didn't tell anyone I was there, and so I just had to wait. 20 minutes went by and no one came to talk to me.

At this point I'm ****ed. I decided to confront this 75 year old receptionist for her to get me the AME because I didn't get what I paid for. As I'm walking up to the desk, the AME walks in the from the back and happily greets me, where I explain what the problem is, and so he invites me back into his office. He tries to reprint it with the student certificate, but that didn't work. He calls MedXpress and they say that he can't reprint it, they would have to mail it to me. So I left, now I have to wait on the mail.

My instructor and I went ahead and skipped the solo's for now, continued with XC work, but I can't go any further without soloing. It's now been a week and a half since I've flown, and I still don't have my student certificate. I was told by my Instructor to call the Richmond FSDO and explain to them what happened to see if they could get it reprinted. So I did just that Wednesday, April 16th and they were more than happy to issue me a student certificate, BUT they don't want to if I have one coming in the mail from MedXpress. The only way for them to issue me one is if I called the AME, had him call MedXpress and cancel the request, then drove 2 hours to Richmond, had them print me my student certificate, then I would be able to continue flying. :mad2:

So I gave MedXpress until Friday April, 12th to get me my certificate in the mail. And guess what? It didn't show up. I got some letter from the FAA about Opting Out from my information being shared while holding a student certificate, and that's it. So now I will have to go back to this AME and have him cancel his request, only to then spend the rest of the day at the Richmond FSDO to get this certificate.

Any advice?

---------------
UPDATE: So today on 4/22, I called back the Richmond FSDO and they checked to see if I had been issued my Student Cert. Yet, and I had. It was issued April 5th. I knew this, technically I have a student cert in the system, I just don't physically have it. So I was told to wait for the certificate in the mail, but in reality it was never coming. "What do I do now?" I asked the friendly FSDO employee, and so now I must act like my student certificate has been lost, call the FAA (Link) and see if they can send me a new one.


All of this trouble because the AME somehow screwed up in printing my Student Cert.


---------------

Problem solved. New Certificate arrived in the mail today.
 
Last edited:
Look on the bright side. At least you didn't do 26 hours and then told you didn't qualify for a medical for some odd reason. I usually advise new pilots to make an appointment with the AME right away.

Sorry I can't help more.
 
Murrgh said:
Any advice?
Click to expand...

Nobody knows Aeromedical medicine, and Aeromedical bureaucracy like Dr. Bruce Chien who hangs out in the Medical Topics forum. Repost this there so he will see it. He'll tell it like it is... and you can take his answers to the bank.

-Skip
 
Actually, you can go to the local FSDO and get this solved on the spot.

My first medical resulted in a deferral. And when the official envelope arrived, it was just the medical certificate and no student certificate.

So on the advice of local pilot friends, I called the local FSDO explained the situation. The inspector set an appointment and asked me to come in. Once there, he had me fill out a bit of paperwork, and had the student cert typed up on the spot. Very friendly, and very helpful.

So give that a try and you might have it done before the end of this next week.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Actually, you can go to the local FSDO and get this solved on the spot.

My first medical resulted in a deferral. And when the official envelope arrived, it was just the medical certificate and no student certificate.

So on the advice of local pilot friends, I called the local FSDO explained the situation. The inspector set an appointment and asked me to come in. Once there, he had me fill out a bit of paperwork, and had the student cert typed up on the spot. Very friendly, and very helpful.

So give that a try and you might have it done before the end of this next week.
Click to expand...

That's what was going to happen for me, except I had the AME call MedXpress to have them mail me a certificate... so I now have to jump through some more hoops to work this all out.
 
Murrgh said:
That's what was going to happen for me, except I had the AME call MedXpress to have them mail me a certificate... so I now have to jump through some more hoops to work this all out.
Click to expand...

I'd still check in with the FSDO. 1) they could get it done right then, 2) they will make a record of your experience and take action if needed.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I'd still check in with the FSDO. 1) they could get it done right then, 2) they will make a record of your experience and take action if needed.
Click to expand...

The FSDO said before they could do anything for me then I had to contact the AME and have him cancel the request, but I'm going to give the FSDO a call back tomorrow to see what I should do.

Thanks for the tips, will update tomorrow.
 
Updated OP, Can't believe it's this hard to obtain a reprint.
 
It's not a reprint. It's a new certificate.

I had something similar happen, but I was less than 5 hours in and nowhere near solo. I called OKC and explained it was an error on the AME's part; I had the (paper) form that had the correct box checked. OKC wanted to talk with the AME, which they did and eventually sent a new cert, and asked me to send the original back.

There are two lessons here: (1) listen to your instructor's advice, and (2) learn patience. Impatience can kill you, and going into cross-country training will really drive that home. Flights will get canceled for all sorts of reasons and you will be tempted to go anyway when your vis limit is 8 miles and ATIS is reporting 7.
 
MAKG1 said:
It's not a reprint. It's a new certificate.

I had something similar happen, but I was less than 5 hours in and nowhere near solo. I called OKC and explained it was an error on the AME's part; I had the (paper) form that had the correct box checked. OKC wanted to talk with the AME, which they did and eventually sent a new cert, and asked me to send the original back.

There are two lessons here: (1) listen to your instructor's advice, and (2) learn patience. Impatience can kill you, and going into cross-country training will really drive that home. Flights will get canceled for all sorts of reasons and you will be tempted to go anyway when your vis limit is 8 miles and ATIS is reporting 7.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, they cannot reprint a certificate, they have to issue you a whole new one?
 
Murrgh said:
Just to clarify, they cannot reprint a certificate, they have to issue you a whole new one?
Click to expand...

They can't reprint a certificate that was never printed in the first place. You DIDN'T get a student pilot certificate. You got a third class medical.
 
MAKG1 said:
They can't reprint a certificate that was never printed in the first place. You DIDN'T get a student pilot certificate. You got a third class medical.
Click to expand...

But it's in the FAA's system that I actually DO have the certificate, I have the certificate number that they think has been issued to me, it was given to me by the Richmond FSDO.

Regardless, I received my new certificate in the mail, same one issued on April 5th.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
Last edited:
Same exact thing happened to me with my student cert. Was given a 3rd class medical instead. Just had to wait for them to send me the right cert. Took one week to get the FAA branch to send me the right one via mail. No big deal for me.
 
Murrgh, where are you flying, and which AME did you go to?
Curious, because you mentioned the crash near JGG.
 
Sounds like some growing pains with the new online system. My new AME's office sounded very on the ball with the entire process despite my AME being a GP and servicing non-aviation patients for his day job.
 
It's not new. Well, maybe it is by FAA standards; they take 20 years to blow their noses.

What's new is that it's required; paper is no longer an option.
 
Two years ago, when I got my medical as a student it was all done on paper with a typewriter. Doing away with paper is still new for some of these offices and the OP's example is proof of that.
 
bluee said:
Murrgh, where are you flying, and which AME did you go to?
Curious, because you mentioned the crash near JGG.
Click to expand...

I fly out of CPK since JGG didn't have their school listed online. It was a tossup between driving to Richmond or Chesapeake, so I chose Chesapeake partially because all of their fleet is relatively new C172/G1000's. I live right around JGG though.

While it was the AME's fault, I'd rather not hurt it reputation here. He did his best to fix it and it all worked out in the end. If you want more details you can PM me about it.
 
I also live near JGG, but I fly out of New Kent W96( http://www.newkentaviation.com/ ). I did my private pilot at JGG a few years ago, but the instructor wasn't that great, and I left to find an instrument instructor. I like the instructors at W96, and by comparison, the instructor I had for my private pilot sucked, and their airplanes were hunks of junk. I heard there is a new CFI there but I don't know anything about him. If you didn't know, the owner of JGG has that entire place under video surveillance, it's a little creepy. I'd say more, but he'd probably try to sue me for libel. The restaurant is good, that's the nicest thing I have to say about that place.

Is there just one place at CPK, or two?
Anyway, good luck with everything, and enjoy your solo!
 
bluee said:
I also live near JGG, but I fly out of New Kent W96( http://www.newkentaviation.com/ ). I did my private pilot at JGG a few years ago, but the instructor wasn't that great, and I left to find an instrument instructor. I like the instructors at W96, and by comparison, the instructor I had for my private pilot sucked, and their airplanes were hunks of junk. I heard there is a new CFI there but I don't know anything about him. If you didn't know, the owner of JGG has that entire place under video surveillance, it's a little creepy. I'd say more, but he'd probably try to sue me for libel. The restaurant is good, that's the nicest thing I have to say about that place.

Is there just one place at CPK, or two?
Anyway, good luck with everything, and enjoy your solo!
Click to expand...

There are two schools at KCPK, Horizon Flight Center, and Epix Aviation. Epix is just like JGG from what I've been told by my instructor. Horizon is a Cessna dealer for the east coast, so they have relatively new planes, all very well kept. They haven't had an accident in 19 years (I think that's the figure they quoted to me). It's well worth the hour drive. I'll post their site here when I get home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
Careful about that "accident" stat.

NTSB has a rather weird definition of what an accident is. You can total the aircraft without having it called that.

Another way to have zero accidents is to have zero flight hours....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top