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I'm sure glad that I have an FAA issued (blessed) medical to protect me
from a heart attack while I'm flying. ;-)
Mark S. -----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Ernest Christley
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 9:19 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: FAA - we're here to help you
David Leonard wrote:
...I'm so crazy I can't show up to work so you all must pay me, but I seem to do fine flying passengers around the sky... Dave Leonard
I wouldn't get so excited about this sort of thing yet, Dave. First off, they only found 48 problems in 40,000. If this can be accepted as a statistically significant sample, then the type of schmuck you describe is AT BEST only about 1 in 1000 among the pilot population. Now, the article said they held a certificate. It didn't say they actually caught someone flying and making log entries. If I have a heart attack tomorrow, the last thing I'll be worried about is mailing the FAA this slip of paper I got in my wallet that says I can fly. In fact, it's been in the same spot, stuck behind my driver's license, for the last three years. It only occasionally sees the light of day when someone ask, "Are you really a pilot?" 'Holding a certificate' does not
equal 'spending the disability check on avgas'. I mean, one of the guys
died before the case could be heard, for chrissake. I have no knowledge
of the facts, but I find it more believable that he was in a hospital bed for months with a FAA certificate in the wallet in his bedside drawer, than that he was flitting about the sky with full knowledge that
his ticker was on the edge.
Then there is the nature of disability. I can have a disability that will stop me from standing for 4 hours at a stretch, something often required in factory jobs, but that won't stop me from sitting as PIC for
an hour. 'Disabled' does not equal 'bed-ridden invalid'.
Then there are the list of paperwork screwups and contradictory advice about the FARs that you'll get, even from people that you would expect you can trust. I got a chuckle reading John Slade's site where he describes trying to work with the FAA to get his airplane inspected. Is
there any reason to believe the FAA would be any more clear and concise with medical processes than it is with inspection processes?
I would file this article in the same folder that holds all the 'terrorist in small airplane' scare article we've been privy to since 9/11 (yes, the round one). The only twist here is that it seem to be trying to give a few props to the FAA for an appearance of doing due diligence, but I just don't see it as newsworthy unless it can be shown that a significant number of these pilots were actually FLYING.
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