Timeline for updates on documents received

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Chris Charanza

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Chris
Well the good news for me is that my AME has now sent all of my paperwork into the FAA for review. This includes my neuropsychological / cogscreen, sleep study, initial status paperwork, cpap download etc.. and a letter from my doctor stating what blood pressure medication i'm on (including the dosage) and what my reading was in office, so I've finally gathered everything the FAA wants from my deferral/denial in 2013 (because of ADHD and Sleep Apena). The HIMS AME i went to reopened my file with a new exam back in March and he is who everything funneled through. What i'm curious about is not necessarily the timeline of the FAA review as I'm expecting at least a couple months at minimum but if anyone knows about how long it takes for them to update in the document section on MedExpress. The neuropsychologist that did my cogscreen/psychological also sent a copy direct to the FAA and it's logged in but it doesn't have the date they got it, just the date of the document. I just want to keep on top of this to ensure they have it but I don't want to start beating down the door before enough time has passed.
 
All of my stuff shows the date of the exam not the date they received it. I check everyday to see if there is a new narrative entered. The FAA rep told me medexpress lags behind The airmen registry. I was told if my SI comes through it will show on the registry first so that leads me to believe medexpress is pretty slow. Please tell me you haven’t been working on a deferral since 2013!
 
Oh heck no. I just didn’t take any further action after the denial in 2013. I reapplied in March and just still have to do what they asked in 2013. I had put flying on the back burner for several years and now I’m finally moving forward.
 
Got it…as far as a couple of months to review…they received the last piece of info they requested April 13th. I am still under review. I remember reading on here the cog review group meets when they get a certain number of cases or every 3 months or something like that. I don’t think they review them as they come in.
 
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I'm expecting a full 3-6 months based on what I've read. Maybe I'll get lucky and my stuff will have come in just before the board gets together, I mean it's unlikely but can always hope for that. I figure that 3 to 6 more months in the whole scheme of things isn't much anyway when it took me 4 months just to get here from when I reapplied.
 
My AME exam was November 11th 2021. I try not to complain about the wait. There are many on here who have been waiting much longer than I have. But I do complain frequently about the outdated process they use to move paperwork and make their decisions. It just seems like so many things could be done to speed up the process.
 
My actual exam was the 2nd week in March of this year. It took about 3 weeks to get the letter back from the FAA asking for more information from that deferral but I was already in the process of working on the stuff from 2013 which would encompass the letter they sent me from March. The letter in March asked me for clinical progress notes and a personal statement on the ADHD stuff but I also had a neuropsychological and cogscreen from the ADHD stuff from 2013 that I was doing so that went to them too. My AME sent me an e-mail on Monday saying that everything had been sent to the FAA. If I remember right when I talked to the HIMS-AME i went to he said he would fax everything to them so hopefully they got it all and it won't be 6 more months to hear back and hopefully when I do hear back it'll be that i have been issued an SI and I can move on with my life.
 
I called the RFS today to try and get an update. The rep told me I was still under review and it was in the Dr’s cue waiting to be reviewed by a Dr. He said it would only be another 90 days or so since my file was already over 60 days old. I’m thinking only another 90 days for the Dr to look at it!
 
My AME exam was in Oct of 21. We had everything (cogscreen, psychology report, cpap data, the whole 9 yards) ready. Everything sent in Oct. Took 6 months to hear back and asking for a psychiatric evaluation now. Was given 30 days to get this report. Um, that's impossible. Asked for and received an extension from FAA. Sent this psychiatric evaluation early June. Called the FAA last week (end of June)to check and was told they just got it.

This process is beyond slow and unbelievable.
 
My biggest fear is after all the waiting I have already done they will send a letter asking for a cog screen and I’ll suffer the same delays your going through. My AME says they may not want one since my Neurologist gave me a clean bill of health. It just seems like the process is designed to create delay. Someone should realize this **** is important to people and should be handled accordingly. I wonder if a family member sent a file in would it get handled like ours?
 
Oh man, I’m under HIMS for antidepressants and still waiting, too. The new website the FAA has, MedXpress, is a load of crap. I checked several weeks ago, said it was in final review, said on the page that a determination was made and its under final review with results in two days. It actually literally states two days. That was several weeks ago. Called DC number, rude guy said my case had not even been picked up by the psychiatrist, it was still in the queue to be looked at and it was probably going to be another 3-4 months. I had my packet done by Jan of this year, received a paper stating DC received it March 7th, 2022 and it would take several weeks to months to be seen. I started my packet May of 2021 :(
 
Mine just says under review. I’m so aggravated with the process. And seeing if you have left something out or they need something else takes months, how can that be? Who thought this crap up? How can they sit around the big table and even remotely act like this process works! How can they not see the whole thing is broken!
 
I would like to try and enact change, but what can we do? This process has been broken for years. Looking at very old forum posts, it has been a problem for years. I just don’t know what can be done. Write a congressman? Write somebody else? I just don’t see how it can start to be fixed…? I would like to try though.
 
I just checked med express. On July 6th it appears the FAA sent me a letter. That’s 2 1/2 months after they received the last piece of info they requested. I checked the airman inquiry and it still says no medical information available so I am assuming they are wanting something else and says still under review. As luck would have it I leave for Europe on the 12th for two weeks. I’m sure they will want something done within 14 days. What a crock of crap. I’m going to call Monday and see if someone can tell me something.
 
MrsGump said:
I would like to try and enact change, but what can we do? This process has been broken for years. Looking at very old forum posts, it has been a problem for years. I just don’t know what can be done. Write a congressman? Write somebody else? I just don’t see how it can start to be fixed…? I would like to try though.
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Yes, call your congress critter! That has worked for others, and only with enough attention from congress will this ever change.

I wish someone on POA who is a good writer would compile these stories, interview delayed airmen, maybe interview Lou and Bruce, and write some articles for the flying mags and try to get a run on some major news sites. Link it to a “pilot shortage” and flight cancellations as leverage for the news.

This won’t change unless the FAA starts getting some loud unfavorable press.
 
TRC1969 said:
I just checked med express. On July 6th it appears the FAA sent me a letter. That’s 2 1/2 months after they received the last piece of info they requested. I checked the airman inquiry and it still says no medical information available so I am assuming they are wanting something else and says still under review. As luck would have it I leave for Europe on the 12th for two weeks. I’m sure they will want something done within 14 days. What a crock of crap. I’m going to call Monday and see if someone can tell me something.
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Do you know if it's a certified letter they are sending you or just a regular letter.I know in my correspondence with them and in the documents section on MedExpress it notes the certified letter. My overriding concern is that i'll wind up in this perpetual loop of send us this now send us that over and over again. I checked MedExpress yesterday and it looks like all of my documents have now been scanned in. I'm now at the point where i've given them everything they've asked for and now I just wait. Maybe I'll get lucky and the next thing I get will be an SI for the sleep apnea since the ADHD has been "disproven" by the cosgscreen and neuropsychological exam. So far I'm about a week away from 4 months since my exam that reopened my file from a denial in 2013 that stemmed from Sleep Apena and and ADHD diagnosis. I've done the neuropsychological evaluation + cogscreen and got a new sleep study and the 30 days of compliance data that goes with the initial status report and a letter from my doctor that states my blood pressure is controlled with an approved medication (this was the other thing that was flagged in 2013) so now hopefully it's just a matter of time but we'll see i guess.
 
That’s a good point. I looked and there is no certified receipt just an entry that says FAA correspondence. What could they possibly want by sending a non certified letter. I thought all their business was conducted via certified mail.
 
TRC1969 said:
That’s a good point. I looked and there is no certified receipt just an entry that says FAA correspondence. What could they possibly want by sending a non certified letter. I thought all their business was conducted via certified mail.
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i could be way wrong but I think when they are asking for more info they’ll send it both certified and regular mail but when it’s your medical they send it regular (non certified) I think I read that somehwhere on POA. I mean maybe I’m being optimistic for you but I seem to remember it only being certified if is a request for more info so maybe you’re coming up to the finish line.
 
I will call on Monday and see if someone can tell me what’s going on. I know they probably won’t tell me what the letter says but maybe they will tell me if it’s something I’m going to need to file an extension to meet a deadline. Maybe, just maybe they will say “oh it’s your SI”. But I sincerely doubt it. My fear is they want a cog screen. If that’s the case there goes another 6 months at the best. But at least something is happening. We now have proof someone does work there!
 
Well I can say with certainty that if it's the cogscreen they want then it'll definitely be certified. The cogscreen in of itself isn't bad but you're right about the waiting. It took me 2 months just to get into the psychologist office to have mine done, another month for him to get it scored and sent to my AME & the FAA (even though I only wanted one copy sent to the AME because now I have a duplicate in OKC) and then I had to wait around for the AME to get the sleep study and cpap download and initial status paperwork which were sent to the FAA on June 26th and finally scanned in to my file (as of yesterday) and now I wait.
 
Fingers crossed for you buddy. I hate these ping pong dealings with the FAA. I am tired of waiting and waiting. I had put life on hold because I didn't want to miss anything but have had enough. I booked a 2 week trip to Tokyo and another 2 week to visit Dubai.
 
I appreciate it. My biggest hope is (a) it doesn’t take 6 months for them to review my stuff and (b) I’m clear of the hoops. I feel like if you don’t get through at the AME level then OKC looks for any reason to kick your app down the line without an approval.
 
There should be an email notification system that lets you know when there is a change to your med express. I have looked everyday for months and last week I missed checking for 3 days. Wouldn’t you know they added something to my file. I don’t want to be in Europe and have a crazy deadline missed because I’m not here to get the letter. Just bad timing I guess.
 
TRC1969 said:
There should be an email notification system that lets you know when there is a change to your med express. I have looked everyday for months and last week I missed checking for 3 days. Wouldn’t you know they added something to my file. I don’t want to be in Europe and have a crazy deadline missed because I’m not here to get the letter. Just bad timing I guess.
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I'm not even sure what they'd update mine with at this point because they have all the documents they requested scanned in. I guess maybe when it moves to review it'll update or something? I'm basically going to look at it once a week or so. If it hasn't moved in a couple months then I'll start making some phone calls and writing some letters or something to see what the hold up is. I mean in reality the file isn't that complicated. They asked me for very specific things and I gave them very specific things. Every test I've done for them has come back as something that would be okay for a medical certificate so at this point there isn't much more I can give them that they don't already have so fingers crossed.
 
Half Fast said:
Yes, call your congress critter! That has worked for others, and only with enough attention from congress will this ever change.

I wish someone on POA who is a good writer would compile these stories, interview delayed airmen, maybe interview Lou and Bruce, and write some articles for the flying mags and try to get a run on some major news sites. Link it to a “pilot shortage” and flight cancellations as leverage for the news.

This won’t change unless the FAA starts getting some loud unfavorable press.
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I agree the only way to get this fixed is to get our congressmen involved. I have been waiting for a response from the FAA for about 3 months now with no updates on MedXpress. I just says in review day after day. I have written my congressman for AZ and have already received a response from Senators Sinema's Office, however i don't think one letter will do it and we need more complaints sent up to the appropriate people. I encourage anyone in a similar situation to write a letter to their Senator or Congressman.

The FAA is understaffed and I get that but its ridiculous to hold pilots careers hostage for months on end. We are being treaded like criminasl. I start a new form on POA and try to get some tracktion.
 
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