----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- I've changed the subject header because it isn't about age, and I refuse to make it about age. (Although I've suggested that age might be a factor, as, like it or not, it IS to our health). It's a about the physical health of pilots and whether ALL pilots can be trusted to self-certify and if, failing that, the DMV is as good as an AME.
At 10:11 AM 7/20/02 -0600, Weston Webb wrote: Itwas Sept.2001 before the FAA let me have a medical. They insist that I'm going to have a heart attack on final approach. Had to have a stress test before they would allow me to have a medical. I came through it with flying colors. So this argument goes 'the medical process is bolloxed up, so eliminate it entirely in favor of self-certification.' This is a baby-with-the-bathwater argument. I maintain that there is a REASON to have an AME take a look at pilots every year or two, just to provide a 3rd-party check-point. If there are issues with that process, then let's FIX THE PROCESS but let's not get rid of it. There is a reason why it exists. On our airplanes, we have an annual inspection. Why are we saying the pilot, who is half of the airplane/pilot system shouldn't have a bi-annual inspection? We do biennial flight reviews. All our pilot skills are no good if our bodies are failing us to the extent that they may fail to keep up their end of the bargain. We've gone a ways towards fixing the process in the last few months. Our friends at the AOPA have gotten a streamlined waiver process in place, that doesn't require so much hassle in OKC. More and more pilots are being returned to flight status with conditions like corrected coronary artery disease and diet-controlled diabetes, that used to be permanently disqualifying. On a scale of 1 to 10, I was a 9. The funny thing about the whole story is that I don't have a heart problem, and had my FAA Doctor andVA Doctor both write a letter to the FAA stating so, but they wouldn't buy it. Still have to get a stress test every year. (next tues) Well, anyway, I'm flying, and feel in great health. I have a class A CDL license and drive charter bus. I'll go up against any younger person on any endurance test and come out in good shape. (Might not win, but will give a good showing) See, this is strange. It is the people who don't (or don't think they) have a problem who keep arguing against the requirement for an FAA medical. Why should we who are healthy enough to fly an Ercoupe object to having that fact verified in order to weed out those who SAY they are, but really aren't? Do we want to be in the pattern with them? Do we want them taxiing out on the runway while we're on short final? I also hear people saying, well, 'it's just one or two people on board.' Right. I don't think the public is willing to put up with that. After all, it was over the July 4th holiday that a light aircraft crashed into a family picnic in California, killing two children. Maybe an Ercoupe would only have killed one? Yes, it was a mechanical failure. But don't people over whose houses and schoolyards I'm flying (even if limited to one passenger) have a right to ask that I nominally prove that I'm not likely to check out when I'm over their children? Or when I'm flying their children as Young Eagles? I think that we have enough problems with GA public relations right now without lowering the medical bar. And without setting us up for a news story that says: 'FAA Allows Pilots to Fly Without Medical Examinations.' A subset of the public, those who may be on the fence about the airport in their neighborhood may read that story and say 'enough is enough. Close them down.' Maybe they'll be wrong, but the airport will be that much closer to closure nonetheless. And I hear others saying 'but we don't have significant problems with pilots becoming disabled now!' No, we don't. But we also have a system designed to keep that from happening. Maybe, just maybe, it's actually working. Maybe it errs on the side of caution, but maybe it's working. We *do* see drivers have coronaries on the highway, and we DO see them killing themselves and other people when they do so. And some of those drivers have been advised by doctors not to drive. We also see people on the road feeling bad, pulling over immediately, and dying where they parked. HOW DO THEY DO THAT IN AN AIRPLANE OVER A CITY? Maybe the answer is to provide a form that any personal physician can sign, that certifies to the FAA that the person is at least in good enough health to drive a car, and is unlikely to suffer any ill effects from altitudes up to, say 8500 feet, nor to become abruptly disabled. Perhaps that could take the place of the AME. (Though I think the result might be that a lot MORE pilots have trouble getting this medical!) As a group, pilots need to be on their best behavior just now. Part of being on our best behavior is, I think, to continue to submit willingly to a minimal process of health screening by a health professional. Even if that means that we may not get to do just what we want to do when we want to do it. Greg ================================================================== TO UNSUBSCRIBE go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
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