Those waiting on the 1st Class Medical SI (Initial) Decision

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leeaf7

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leeaf7
What is your timeline like? I was advised about 12 weeks for a turnaround time. My paperwork was uploaded directly to the FAA by my AME in August followed by an actual physical with my AME next week - he "deferred" the case to AMCD.

I've been waiting ever since, getting close to 14 weeks after the initial paperwork submission. Is this kind of lengthy delay normal these days who are looking for their first time 1st class SI? Mine is for Grave's disease that was diagnosed in May but then was chemically/clinically euthyroid in August with Tapazole.

I am a revenue airman currently out of work because of this. Words fail me to describe my frustration and anxiety while waiting.
 
I'm at 12 weeks now. Last week I was told that it was being reviewed by a staff physician. Still waiting. I completely understand your frustration. Being out of work is the worst.
 
Dr. Bruce shared this recently:

bbchien said:
The backlog has become a self fulfilling prophesy. Medical officers are now saying, even for revenue aviators, they will not go "to the head of the line" contravening the March 5, 2018 policy that allowed for that if there was immediate need for employment or immeidiate need due to financial hardship (translation = demonstrated revenue aviator).

So of course, when you have a mortgage and kid's tuition to pay, one uses his congressman. What that does is takes more time out of circuit becuase then the medical officer has to work the case without the minion in front of him to organize the case. It takes him about 4x as long. All other work stops when there's a congressional.

So it does not help the big picture but it's put folks in the situaiton where they do not care about the "big picture", they need to survive.

This is a MANGEMENT problem, I'm afraid to say.....or "room for improvement", as it were.
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Honestly I was "this" close to writing my rep but then... like Dr. Bruce said.

But I mean... 3.5 months for a condition so common and - to me - clear cut...! My endo doc's like "why the hell aren't you flying yet?" :(
 
My father is at the 6 month point waiting on 3rd class for what should have been a CACI-qualified condition. His AME didn’t know what he was doing. I even set him up with printed medical history, a letter from his doctor, and a blank CACI form. He should have walked out with a medical in his hand.

Waiting in deferment is awful, but doing so because of AME ignorance is doubly frustrating.

Regarding the delay, I have never seen 6 months for something so simple. This is crazy. I was told it was because of COVID vetting, but that process is actually rather simple. Only pilots that had a stay in the ICU or those still symptomatic need to be deferred, and I can’t imaging there were an overwhelming number of pilots that required intensive care due to COVID, pilots generally being among the healthier demographic.

The FAA should be bending over backwards trying to keep 3rd classes in the system, not making it so hard that everyone flocks to basic med out of convenience alone.
 
So today my FAA registry medical information shows a correct date for my physical (08/2021) valid only till 10/31/2022. However, the class of medical shows THIRD when I applied for FIRST. I am genuinely confused?!?!? I called AMCD yesterday on Wednesday and they confirmed my case is still under review.

Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Just got my initial SI 1C today. Total 15 weeks. Medical is valid 1 yr from the date I received my physical from the AME. 08/2021.
 
Why wouldn’t you contact your ELECTED representative if FAAs incompetent is not allowing you to put food on your table, this falls exactly in the wheelhouse of what we elect them to do.

If the FAA can’t run the medical certificate stuff, changes need to be made, maybe this shouldn’t even be the responsibility of some DOT workers in the first place. Just make it all like basic med and have real practicing doctors make these calls.
 
BladeSlap said:
Why wouldn’t you contact your ELECTED representative if FAAs incompetent is not allowing you to put food on your table, this falls exactly in the wheelhouse of what we elect them to do.

If the FAA can’t run the medical certificate stuff, changes need to be made, maybe this shouldn’t even be the responsibility of some DOT workers in the first place. Just make it all like basic med and have real practicing doctors make these calls.
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BladeSlap,

I agree and disagree at the same time. I certainly did consider contacting my congresswoman. However we pilots are trained in a way that we understand there's a process you would have to faithfully follow and things not necessarily move in a pace you would want. I was fortunate enough to have savings that could last few months and also had supplemental income from my company's pilot disability program. It wasn't as much as I would like, but at least I was having my ends meet every month (barely). What concerned me the most is what Dr. Bruce said: that when your rep contacts the FAA, everything stops and things slow down even more for others still waiting in line. We intuitively know that's not such a desirable character you are looking for as a responsible airman.

Do I believe there's a management problem at AMCD like what Dr. Bruce said? Absolutely. And I intend to write my rep about that (although, I don't think we have a solution to the root cause). But as far as my medical goes, I know there are even more desperate revenue guys without described disability benefit like mine, dying for their 1C or 2C to come back. I wasn't going to cut in line just because I was frustrated with the whole process. Would I have done differently if I was making big fat zero with mortgage payment coming up? Damn right I would. I wish we had a better way to address this issue. It's a systemic problem.
 
leeaf7 said:
BladeSlap,

I agree and disagree at the same time. I certainly did consider contacting my congresswoman. However we pilots are trained in a way that we understand there's a process you would have to faithfully follow and things not necessarily move in a pace you would want. I was fortunate enough to have savings that could last few months and also had supplemental income from my company's pilot disability program. It wasn't as much as I would like, but at least I was having my ends meet every month (barely). What concerned me the most is what Dr. Bruce said: that when your rep contacts the FAA, everything stops and things slow down even more for others still waiting in line. We intuitively know that's not such a desirable character you are looking for as a responsible airman.

Do I believe there's a management problem at AMCD like what Dr. Bruce said? Absolutely. And I intend to write my rep about that (although, I don't think we have a solution to the root cause). But as far as my medical goes, I know there are even more desperate revenue guys without described disability benefit like mine, dying for their 1C or 2C to come back. I wasn't going to cut in line just because I was frustrated with the whole process. Would I have done differently if I was making big fat zero with mortgage payment coming up? Damn right I would. I wish we had a better way to address this issue. It's a systemic problem.
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While your attitude is honorable, there's a reason your Congressional rep has the resources and office staff designated to deal with these types of issues. You shouldn't feel bad, at all, using the resources that are available to you. The other folks "in line" have the same resources available to them (whether they know it or not). It's not "wrong" to use your Congressman/Congresswoman's resources to help navigate an otherwise broken administrative machine. If the FAA begins to see a huge uptick in Congressional intervention, perhaps someone in AMCD management will take notice and make an effort to fix what's broken. I think that's potentially more likely to be effective than writing a post-hoc letter to your Rep that, unfortunately, is unlikely to go anywhere but the file cabinet.
 
bradg33 said:
It's not "wrong" to use your Congressman/Congresswoman's resources to help navigate an otherwise broken administrative machine. If the FAA begins to see a huge uptick in Congressional intervention, perhaps someone in AMCD management will take notice and make an effort to fix what's broken.
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The December issue of AOPA Pilot has a short blurb by Gary Crump that addresses this ongoing nightmare. His suggestion is to contact your regional flight surgeon.

I'm of the persuasion that if everyone that has been standing in a long waiting line for a long time would get together and inundate congress with letters, emails, phone calls, visits, tears, and horror stories that something would get done. It's the old "squeaky wheel gets the grease" approach.
 
Who has an incentive to fix the problem? The FAA bureaucrats getting their regular paychecks regardless of how fast or slow they work? The politicians funding the FAA when there are corporate lobbyists with much bigger sticks and carrots than a bunch of grounded pilots? These people don’t care about your mortgage. Nothing will change until planes start falling out of the sky because we can’t get good enough pilots to fly them or the public screams about flights being canceled.
 
leeaf7 said:
BladeSlap,

I agree and disagree at the same time. I certainly did consider contacting my congresswoman. However we pilots are trained in a way that we understand there's a process you would have to faithfully follow and things not necessarily move in a pace you would want. I was fortunate enough to have savings that could last few months and also had supplemental income from my company's pilot disability program. It wasn't as much as I would like, but at least I was having my ends meet every month (barely). What concerned me the most is what Dr. Bruce said: that when your rep contacts the FAA, everything stops and things slow down even more for others still waiting in line. We intuitively know that's not such a desirable character you are looking for as a responsible airman.

Do I believe there's a management problem at AMCD like what Dr. Bruce said? Absolutely. And I intend to write my rep about that (although, I don't think we have a solution to the root cause). But as far as my medical goes, I know there are even more desperate revenue guys without described disability benefit like mine, dying for their 1C or 2C to come back. I wasn't going to cut in line just because I was frustrated with the whole process. Would I have done differently if I was making big fat zero with mortgage payment coming up? Damn right I would. I wish we had a better way to address this issue. It's a systemic problem.
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SMS?

If you walk out to the helicopter and see a blown torque link bearing, do you not say something to the mechanic because it might cause delays in his other work?

If you and your co-pilot have a hard landing that requires a inspection, do you not say anything?

If you see something amiss that could cost your company lots of money, do you say anything?


The FAA is “unsat” and it is a problem, it needs to be resolved, obviously FAA can’t, or won’t fix it, it’s hurting people and costing businesses and families money and pain every second it goes on, this is the exact reason we have elected officials in the first place.
 
Rushie said:
Who has an incentive to fix the problem? The FAA bureaucrats getting their regular paychecks regardless of how fast or slow they work? The politicians funding the FAA when there are corporate lobbyists with much bigger sticks and carrots than a bunch of grounded pilots? These people don’t care about your mortgage. Nothing will change until planes start falling out of the sky because we can’t get good enough pilots to fly them or the public screams about flights being canceled.
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While, for the most part, I agree with you I believe there is a way to give them the incentive to make a change. There is a good parable in Scripture that points out that a judge that didn't want to do anything to help a poor widow woman finally decided to help her because he concluded that her continual coming to him would weary him (i.e. the squeaky wheel). If the people that are being greatly affected would get together and start ringing the phones and beating on some doors I do think that after a while the congress critters would want to do something to make them go away.
 
I absolutely agree with all of your opinions. I am not saying that my judgement is absolutely right or FAA does not have any problem - they absolutely do. My circumstances only allowed me to have that luxury of waiting. All I am saying is rather than writing your rep solely on a purpose of accelerating your special issuance case (which causes collateral damage of slowing the entire system even further), we need to be more collective and point to a right direction all together to have a meaningful voice. If we individually complain about the inefficiency of government agency and the office only gets may be a dozen letter a year I doubt they would pay attention much to the root cause. It's all about volume of the voice because that means the amount of votes they would win next time.
 
leeaf7 said:
I absolutely agree with all of your opinions. I am not saying that my judgement is absolutely right or FAA does not have any problem - they absolutely do. My circumstances only allowed me to have that luxury of waiting. All I am saying is rather than writing your rep solely on a purpose of accelerating your special issuance case (which causes collateral damage of slowing the entire system even further), we need to be more collective and point to a right direction all together to have a meaningful voice. If we individually complain about the inefficiency of government agency and the office only gets may be a dozen letter a year I doubt they would pay attention much to the root cause. It's all about volume of the voice because that means the amount of votes they would win next time.
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Call me skeptical, but I don't think the volume of the voice matters much at all. What matters to politicians is who is speaking, and unfortunately they don't care much about regular joes. To make any progress, it's going to take someone (or an organization) with real influence. AOPA and/or EAA, and the airline unions, are the ones with a more important voice and need to be championing the cause.
 
bradg33 said:
Call me skeptical, but I don't think the volume of the voice matters much at all. What matters to politicians is who is speaking, and unfortunately they don't care much about regular joes. To make any progress, it's going to take someone (or an organization) with real influence. AOPA and/or EAA, and the airline unions, are the ones with a more important voice and need to be championing the cause.
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A bunch of looters got politicians in DC to kneel, many places to defund their police, not go after shoplifters etc.

A kid made up a story about turtles getting straws in their nose and got plastic straws outlawed.


Just takes one good photo op and story
 
BladeSlap said:
A bunch of looters got politicians in DC to kneel, many places to defund their police, not go after shoplifters etc.

A kid made up a story about turtles getting straws in their nose and got plastic straws outlawed.


Just takes one good photo op and story
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Nobody gives a crap about rich guys wanting to make noise in the air. Revenue guys will get a little sympathy, but not near enough.
 
PaulS said:
Nobody gives a crap about rich guys wanting to make noise in the air. Revenue guys will get a little sympathy, but not near enough.
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I remember someone mentioning a woman who left a bar, got sexually assaulted, and than professionally assaulted by the FAA, a story like that hitting the news would do it.
 
BladeSlap said:
A bunch of looters got politicians in DC to kneel, many places to defund their police, not go after shoplifters etc.

A kid made up a story about turtles getting straws in their nose and got plastic straws outlawed.


Just takes one good photo op and story
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Those people got the media behind them - rich pilots aren't going to get that benefit.
 
To their defense they have a lot to deal with.;)
 

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bbchien said:
RFS usually Cannot handle Cardiology nor HIMS.....
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They can't make a decision, but they can help a pilot negotiate the rest of the FAA civil aeromedical. Of course, it would be best to be dealing with an AME that didn't need such help.
 
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