It happens not infrequently to me. I get a call from a pilot wanting to renew his medical and I always end up asking the question, "Before you come out, are there any medications or medical problems that I need to know about and do you wear contact lenses?".
There is occassionally a heavy pause at the other end of the line and then the, "Er, uh, well, I take drug 'x' for this and that but I only take it when I need too...".
Let's get something straightened out right now; Bad news NEVER gets better with time.
The fact is that if you are taking unreported medications, your medical is null and void right now. You might not remember this but when you filled out your forms on the last medical you were also promising to report any changes in your health and avoid flying after treatments until you are cleared by your AME. The minute you start therapy for a new condition, that little white piece of paper that you worry so much about is good only for starting a small fire. Really.
A medical is not a get out of jail free card for the time period that it is issued for, it is a place marker in time saying to the FAA that on the date you had your exam, your health was in compliance with the standards seen as necessary for the conduct of safe flight. As long as nothing changes, the marker is valid, but if it changes the first thing you ought to do is pick up the phone or email your flight doc.
Just today I had a conversation with an airman who admitted, sheepishly, that he was taking drug 'x'. He started talking really fast and I had to slow him down and tell him that taking the drug was a non-issue, I was certain that I could get it waivered or verbally approved by tomorrow when he gets his exam, the bigger issue was the witholding of that information.
People only withold information when they think that disclosure might cost them dearly. Well let me tell you what will cost you more; crashing your airplane or running into another airplane during taxi, getting a mandatory drug test, failing it and then watching helplessly as the insurance company denies coverage and the FAA enforces its action on you as they recently did in California.
http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/opsafepilot.pdf
Sobering eh?
Likely in most of these cases, all that the pilots needed to do was tell the truth and the end of the story would have been a short delay while waiver was obtained and then the pilot would have been in compliance and no error would have occurred.
In nearly a decade of being an aviation medical specialist I have only seen a couple of pilots who did not get medicals AND all of them were due to the fact that the pilots did not submit the requested medical information for the FAA. Had they submitted I am certain that they would have been issued waivers.
So if you are facing the possibility of having to report something that you are not comfortable with, I encourage you to start by examining the above website. Then email me and I will help you through the process if your AME is unfamiliar with it of getting your waiver request put together for the Civil Aeromedical Institute. It takes a bit of work up front but in the end the clear conscience and valid insurance coverage is worth it.
FF
No comments:
Post a Comment