What's the latest on your FAA status, my friend?

After calling the FAA weekly for months, I finally got a letter from them last month and it wasn't good. It essentially says that due to my diagnosis of liposarcoma I don't qualify for a medical certificate. This is despite my three consecutive CT scans showing no further indication of liposarcoma.

I've contacted the doctor at Delta and he says he will try to get the reasoning behind their decision. He also says that this doesn't mean it's a final decision, just the decision "at this time." Not very encouraging. The Delta doc also told me that it can take as long as two years to get back to the cockpit after cancer (assuming all indications are good). That would be February 2018 for me.

such a shame...i'd be happy to have you fly me anywhere.

Sorry to hear that, W0X0F. You're a credit to the aviation community and I hope you get back to doing what you love sooner rather than later.

The fact that nobody can tell you definitively that "following cancer treatment, x number of months must pass or y number of scans must be clear before a medical certificate will be issued" is pretty ludicrous.

We're talking about someone's livelihood, and all you get is "maybe later, who knows".

On the other hand, I suppose you don't have to work, so perhaps this fits in the "things that piss you off but shouldn't" thread.

Well, that's an interesting point. And I must admit I've enjoyed playing more golf than I ever have in my life (and my handicap reflects that: down from 18 to 12), and I also enjoy poker.

But the truth is, I just love flying and I miss it horribly. It doesn't help that my older brother is also a Delta captain and still out there "slipping the surly bonds." I never realized how much being a pilot is who I am. Now I feel like I'm just another OMC grinding it out at the poker table.

What really gets me about the whole thing is that cancer isn't like having a heart condition. In that case, I could understand the FAA's reluctance to take a chance on me. After all, a bad ticker is like a time bomb waiting to go off. But with cancer, if you get up feeling good in the morning, the chances of keeling over during the day are pretty slim (at least from anything cancer related). There will be days, weeks, or months of debilitation providing ample warning.

Yeah. that's what I thought of when reading your latest post with the news. IDK, there might be types of cancers which are like that, but I've never heard of such a thing.

Seems way more likely that you'd wake up with a slight cold that turns worse during a flight, sneeze, and bang your head on the instruments to cause flight turmoil than cancer knocking you down mid-flight.

Very sorry to hear the word. Hope it gets turned around for you as soon as possible.

Are you banned from flying totally, or just large passenger jets?

A friend of mine who once flew a MiG-21 in combat and also did formation flying displays occasionally goes up in a light aircraft. As he hasn't kept up his license so he has to have his "instructor" present in the plane.

How do you land on a runway facing north/south while the earth spins beneath you? It must be difficult to hit a moving target like that.

How often do you have to tilt down to keep up with the earth's curvature? Is that something you have to think about while doing a long flight?

W0X0F:

Getting cancer (any cancer) is a bad break, but there is hope in your specific situation. I've been reading the Wikipedia article on liposarcomas. Liposarcomas are a very rare type of cancer, but the prognosis is good. The five year survival rate - depending on the specific type of liposarcoma - varies from a low of 56 percent to a high of 90 percent. Since, as a pilot, I assume you are required to undergo a yearly physical, your cancer was [very likely] caught early - further increasing your odds. The fact that you've had three successive CT scans with no sign of recurrence is very encouraging. (Hopefully you'll be flying again - in due course.)

The Wikipedia article mentions a genetic research project centered on identifying genetic markers for liposarcomas. Have you considered volunteering for that research project? In any case, "Good luck!"

This is what gets me too.

Hopefully things get worked out for you.

Hey, W0X0F;

That's a bummer. I do wonder about flying small planes as well, but wouldn't that also need FAA okay as well?

BTW, Real Engineering on YouTube has been posting a bunch of videos on airplane mechanics. They are all well-made and quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR1...81kwXfg/videos

I asked about the wing tips on planes ITT. There is a video on that every subject.

Unfortunately, having no medical certificate means no flying of any kind. Now, it may ultimately end up that the FAA will clear me to get a third or second class medical. Third class is required for private flying; second class is required for commercial flying (any flying that you get paid for, including flight instructing). It's the first class medical I need to exercise the privileges of my Airline Transport Pilot certificate as a Captain.

Tweet the Trumpster, he'll fix you up.

The compass heading changes as you fly around the earth in a straight line (not for North-South routes though), so that's one thing that needs to be kept in mind due to the curvature of the earth

I think one of the coolest things I learned from this thread is that there are instances where runways have had to be re-labelled because of the drift of the magnetic north pole.

The magnetic poles flip completely north to south every few hundred millenia.

I knew that, but thats a very geological time frame thing. I even knew the north pole moved at a relatively fast rate (for a geological thing). I just found it surprising that it was a big enough effect to actually influence runway labels.

They say right now the north pole is moving north about 40 miles a year.

It's too bad that the Gov't has to step in and play doctor. Just like when a doctor orders a medical test he sees is needed on a patient and the big conglomerate insurance company says no.

Anyway, have you've though about non PIC flying such as with a CFI?

I hadn't considered this and, while it certainly wouldn't give me the complete flying fix I need, I'd probably have to do this at some point just to get back in the air.

Not to hijack this great thread, but... um... No!

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Yeah, I thought this one sounded ridiculous when I read it, but didn't take the time to reply. 40 feet would be more believable, but even that's probably way off.



Just found this without breaking a sweat...

17 cm is just under 7 inches.