Seeking honest opinions and advice

U

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Hello all,
I've been lurking around these forums for a while and have searched through many for years for advice to my situation. Unfortunately I am one of the many aspiring pilots who has made the bad choice of drinking and driving twice while younger and am facing the consequences on my career choice now.

I am 28 years old and these offenses occurred when I was 20 and 21. Not exactly recent happenings but still not outside of the 10 year mark I have seen referenced here and other forums. I don't know if I am more disappointed in myself for letting it happen in the first place or repeating the same mistake shortly after.
Following the second offense, I finally pulled my head out of my arse and began to face the music. My childhood dream of being a professional pilot seemed pretty much impossible now as I began to research the negative aspects of DUI conviction and being a pilot. I decided if there was going to be any kind of chance for me, I was going to have to make some life changes.
Some information that may be of use to anyone here that can chime in on this;
-both DUI's were under .15 BAC
-Prior to and since the 2 DUI's there have been no traffic violations of any kind or arrests. I have never been pulled over or arrested for anything except these 2 stupid decisions.

A few years after the last DUI, I decided attending a flight school was probably a good option. My thinking was that I could use the good name of a respected flight school to help pad my resume. (naieve I know) At the same time I was doing this I had also joined the Air National Guard. My reasons for joining the military were not at all solely based on my legal troubles. Military service is almost tradition in my family but the active duty lifestyle was not what i desired as i wanted to be a commercial pilot in some fashion. The DUI's scared off that dream early and I believed the only way I was going to get my hands on the controls of an aircraft was to become a maintenance technician, and so I did. Obviously I had to jump through all manner of hoops and recommendation letters and evaluations to get into the military after a DUI but I did it and I have serve as a successful, and trouble free member for nearly 7 years now working avionics on KC-135's.
Back to the flight school idea, as I matured more into the adult I am today and accepted my faults, I realized that simply attending flight training somewhere was not going to slice the bacon for my flying goals. With all the scrutiny on quality training and general dislike of "pilot mills" following the Colgan accident, I decided to drop plans of attending a school such as ATP flight school.

Over the next few years I married, deployed, and became eligible for veterans benefits and decided to apply them to a degree. I enrolled in the aviation institute at my local college, of which i will graduate with my bachelors degree this December. All this while maintaining a steady civilian job for the entire period.

Recently I applied for a pilot slot in my unit as that was the absolute best option I saw for myself to fly. Once i got within the graduation window to apply I did. Unfortunately I was not selected, most likely due to age as you have to be at pilot training before you turn 30 years old and I was probably cutting it to close.

This is putting me back at square one. I am still serving in my unit, still have my nose clean of any incidents or infractions, and I sill want to fly. I began to entertain the idea of attending a flight school again and began to research schools like ATP flight school again (which has grown substantially) and US Aviation Academy for example. My concern here is that these DUI's are still going to cause me issues here has I have begun to look into the medical screening requirements.

I completely understand and accept the consequences of what I did when i was younger and immature and yet I also understand that it was not exactly that long ago in the scheme of life.

What I am asking of this community is any advice or opinions on if I should hang up the dream and do something else or is there still hope I could attend one of these programs in a year or so and be successful.

Thanks in advance,

B.
 
The only advice I can give is wait for Dr. Bruce to come along. He will tell you how IT IS. Follow any advice he gives you to the letter. Yes it was stupid......twice. However, I commend you on the road you have taken since then and I thank you sincerely for your service. We do find out too late that sometimes the consequences for are actions are lifelong. Good luck to you.
 
I have to say that I am impressed with your attitude. I am not in the business of hiring comerical pilots, so my opinion of your chances is not going to be of any help.
 
It is a great attitude to hold. And I also commend your service. Two may hurt. Dr can comment on that. Although a good letter of recommendation from the service may help too. Sometimes they like employment references. Or at least I heard. If so a letter from a co from the service wouldn't hurt. Best of luck!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
B,

Been there, done that, still managed to do the professional pilot thing. You'll need to jump through some hoops, but it's entirely possibly to have a good career in aviation. Those hoops will be outlined by Dr. Bruce when he checks in.

As far as getting jobs after you get your time built up, there may be some companies that will look down your nose at you as a result of the DUIs. Just move on to the next company. There are others that will be more than happy to hire a quality pilot that has a proven record of learning from past mistakes.
 
As others have said, working with Dr. Bruce Chien will be the best chance at a positive result. There might be a big bunch of expensive tests to do, but these are the best and correct way to show the FAA that the drinking problem of the past is not you of the present.

Bruce's office is in Peoria. But you can contract with him to help you in a remote sense. Then once you have the ducks in the appropriate rank and file, you can schedule the official exam with him so he can be your advocate in this. Bruce's contact information is on his website, www.aeromedicaldoc.com

If you've lurked here long enough, you'll know him as one of the few who has the right answer to the various situations when it comes to FAA medical. And he's one of a very small number of AME's who have the hutzpah to call OKC and discuss your case with the examiner once he has the stuff he needs to issue the certificate. Many others will just stuff you into the queue known as "deferral hell".

He will be along and in this thread eventually. But if you want to get busy on this, send him an email and set up an appointment for a phone call.
 
It is refreshing to see someone admit mistakes - if everyone had this attitude the world would be a much better place. We make mistakes as human beings - especially between the ages of 16 and 30 because, basically, the part of the human brain which deals with impulse control and judgment is not fully mature yet in the vast majority of people. If we learn from those mistakes and change our behavior - guess what? We are mature and have learned and become better people.

Unfortunately, there is a bureaucratic war on mistakes involving alcohol. Corporations are counseled by members of my profession to avoid anyone who at any time had a mistake with drugs or alcohol. This is because over half of these people do it again - because they are substance dependent.

There is no way to tell from merely looking at someone if they have 'learned their lesson.' The way to tell is to see what they did after their mistake. Unfortunately, that does not change the response of the HR types and lawyers. If someone changes their life - they show self-control, they no longer have issues with substances, their work record reflects a constant upward trend accomplishment and higher achievement - those are inconsistent with someone who still has impulse control and maturity issues.

Unfortunately - companies have policies instead of intelligent people. Zero tolerance means no one ever has to exercise judgment ever again. What a crock.

Dear OP = I hope you find someone who can see the changes you made - and get past the zero tolerance HR legalistic BS . . . sure - you'll have a higher burden and a higher level of scrutiny - thats a bed you made - deal with it.
 
Okay, B. Thank you for your service.

However, that cuts ZERO slack to the civil administration.
TWO DUIs in the ten years = by definition of the Federal Air Surgeon, repetitive alcohol abuse.

So how do you prove a change?

First, the only data the FAA recognizes is proven sobriety. Arrange a monitoring program, they call, you pee, they record. You pay. About $65 per.

Second, you need to get to a HIMS "P&P" Evaluation. When you get there you'll recognize it as very similar to the USAF Psychological evaluation. It's a whole day with the psych testing, another day with the Federally credentialed psychiatrist. This is about $4,000 when done.

The Random Testing will help.

You have Zero chance of any certificate without proven abstinence and a set of favorable evaluations.

You will also need:
All your court papers
A multi state DL search to prove that the two items are the only two items.
An FBI felony search (hey, you've been fingerprinted already so WTH?).

Letters from those that employ you- "B" is reliable, can be left alone, doesn't cancel at the last moment.... ....absence of those describe drug and dependency behaviors...
CBC and ALT (blood tests) that are normal, they help with the attest.


Sorry you were stupid when you were a young man.
You CLEARLY are not, now.....
My dad used to tell me that your record is written every day you live. Correcting the record....that's a job.
 
bbchien said:
TWO DUIs in the ten years = by definition of the Federal Air Surgeon, repetitive alcohol abuse.
Click to expand...

Doc,

Just curious... If the OP waits three more years (28-21=7), will he be good to go without all the hoop jumping, or is the fact that he had the two DUIs at 20 and 21 the controlling factor?
 
If he waits 3 more years the P&P eval will be reduced to an SAP eval (the kind the courts get when you have a DUI, except in FAA format. In this system you trade "track record years" for "evaluation expense".

Her will be required to show a 10 year DL search showing NOTHING on it, in all states tin which he has resided. Everything else remains the same.
 
OP: Thanks for your service, and I truly wish you well. The only reason many of us are not in a similar position is luck, perhaps not with drinking and driving, but certainly in other aspects of our youth.

Doc Bruce: I love this quote:

Your record is written every day you live. Correcting the record....that's a job.​

Could I use it in my signature, with attribution? Understand if you say no due to sentimental value.
 
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