Hello Yachtsman,
I recently went to Gatwick for my class 1 initial after having suffered a history of asthma. I'll try to impart what I have learnt from the many exchanges I have had with SRG over the matter.
Basically, having asthma will not immediately disqualify you from obtaining a Class 1 medical certificate. It is all about how well your condition is managed. You need to be completely honest with the doctors at SRG about your condition and its history. The first thing I would suggest is to go to your GP. Have him/her write a report on your asthma and all significant events related to it (there is usually a charge for this - it cost me £15). Before you do this make sure you visit the asthma clinic at your practice to have your latest peak flow readings measured.
Send the report down to the SRG at Gatwick and wait to hear back from them. Unfortunately this can take a while as they are a busy group of people. I waited about a month to hear back from them.
They will come back to you and advise you whether or not you may attend the Class 1 initial examination. If they tell you that you can attend, you will have to undergo an examination by a specialist in respiratory medicine on the same day as your class 1. Unfortunately this costs an additional £80. Be sure to book the consultation at the same time as you book your class 1 medical to ensure they are on the same day! They have limited availability and most people don't want to have to make two seperate trips. (They like you to have the consultation first and then if all turns out well you continue on to do the full medical in the afternoon).
If/when you get to Gatwick, as part of the asthma consultation you will almost certainly be asked to do an exercise test. This involes blowing in to a very clever machine that assesses your lung capacity. You then put on your gym kit and run around the car park for 6 minutes, before coming in and blowing in to the same machine again. Then you go sit down for 10 minutes before blowing in to the machine again. Its fairly knackering stuff.
At the time I went down to do mine (several weeks ago) for an unrestricted class 1, your spirometry results (the evil blowing machine) after exercise had to be within 10% of your resting result. This is the way in which SRG assess your likely reaction to certain stressful events which may occur in the cockpit environment (such as depressurization or smoke/fumes).
If you come out of that unscathed then you can look forward to another 3 or 4 hours of being poked and prodded. In fact, the only redeeming part of the process (apart from the lovely people who run the show) was the eye examination. Those who have been recently will know exactly what I am talking about. Yeesh!
V2
P.S
I passed the Class 1 (as long as the chest X-Ray is OK). The two medications described to me by the specialist at Gatwick as preferable and "extremely safe" were beclathomesone and salbutamol (these must be inhaled as oral drugs are disqualifying). I also got the impression that use of the preventative inhaler is viewed rather positively by SRG (as opposed to someone who uses the reliever only).
Last edited by veetwo; 5th Sep 2005 at 12:35.