Thanks Cloudee and joseph.
Horatio: I’m not sure I have the choice, anymore. Having been diagnosed with something that I have disclosed, it may be that I’m the regulator’s plaything for the rest of my life.
Torres: It’s been around 20 years since I worked in CASA. I’ve long since grown up and moved on.
Today the reality is that I’m effectively being punished by the regulator for having tried to do the right thing. Although it may not have been the subjective intention of CASA staff to punish me, the objective reality is that I am being punished because of the way in which CASA Avmed chooses - note, the word “chooses” is very important - to administer the medical certification system. Selectively disregarding and relying on the opinions of treating specialists is a choice. Construing everything in way that highlights the worst possibilities and downplays the best possibilities is a choice. As the thread title says, this is, in my view, a biased and intellectually dishonest approach.
Avmed used to work differently, and used to be an integrated and respected part of the system of aviation safety.
Most of the pilots with whom I’ve discussed my current circumstances have asked why I was so stupid as to disclose to CASA in the first place, or so stupid as to volunteer to do the MRI. That scares me. What scares me even more is that the positive disincentive to disclosure or even to seek medical advice ‘when in doubt’ appears not to scare CASA Avmed. I assume that in their world they’re sure they’re making a positive contribution to aviation safety.