PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Systemic Lupus, SLE = No more flying?
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Old 30th Aug 2009, 13:12
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Phororhacos
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
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Bad Medicine is right, You do need to contact your CAA. Despite your location I wonder if you have a UK issued JAR certificate. If so, the CAA will almost certainly respond to your call by making you "temporarily unfit" and asking you for detailed reports from your Specialist. With a relatively unusual condition like SLE (about 1:1000 or so I think) the more information your consultant can give about you personally the better. You do need to be aware that many medications used in SLE can , in themselves, be incompatible with JAR certification. However.....

You ask about certification for the NPL. (I presume this means a National Pilot's Licence).

I see your location is given as Kazakhstan. If you are not a UK resident with an NHS GP please ignore the rest of the post as I only have any knowledge (albeit peripheral) of the situation in the UK and this post only applies to the UK NPPL (National Pilots Licence) which you can use in a Single Engine Aeroplane, in daylight, under VFR, in UK airspace only.

In the UK, certification for the NPPL is done by your own registered NHS GP or another doctor in the same practice with access to your medical record. (No other doctor*, not even your consultant or your AME, can sign it you up for this, though if your GP does refuse, there is a mechanism to try to get them to change their minds). This is the form you have to sign, and they then countersign it.

Certification is based on the UK DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) medical standards for car drivers. The lower standard is based on private car driving, and enables one to fly solo or with a safety pilot, but not with a non pilot passenger. The higher standard is based on Lorry and Bus Driver medical standards and allows one to carry non pilots.

You can find the dvla standards here....At a glance guide to the current medical standards of fitness to drive

and I can't see a mention of SLE in it anywhere, though some of the complications of SLE are mentioned.

If your GP feels you are legal to drive, then you should be legal to fly, so why not take the form along to him or her, and see if you can persuade them to sign it. (You may well have to pay a fee, and provide your GP with any background information they need. You can find out more at National Private Pilots licence )

I hope things work out for you.

* (actually, the Medical Advisor of AOPA or the LAA can sign you up if your GP refuses, though they would be more likely to try to try to persuade your GP to change his or her mind). ..edited for pedantic accuracy.

Last edited by Phororhacos; 30th Aug 2009 at 14:17.
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