Hi Richard - the medical was pretty nerve-wracking: there seemed to be a lot riding on it, which is why I wanted to get it out of the way as early as possible. I was diagnosed with asthma as a child, and even though I haven't taken any medication for years, there was still a doubt at the back of my mind as to whether I'd be pronounced fit! There's a great write up of the medical experience here -
http://www.pprune.org/medical-health...ip-report.html
I went to Gatwick for the medical and I was whizzed round the tests - height, weight, urine sample, blood test, ECG, hearing test, (the dreaded) spirograph, peripheral vision test - every test was done in a different room and the nurse was brilliantly enthusiastic about EVERYTHING - it was a bit like being on the crystal maze as we rushed from room to room! All that was done in about half an hour, and I thought I'd be out in no time - no such luck...
I had about a 10 minute wait for the opthamologist before having the most thorough eye test of my life - not just reading through the colour blindness test book and reading the rows of letters from about 50ft, but reading tiny text from a book at arm's length with one eye covered, balancing long poles on my nose and trying to read things stuck on the end of the pole, and testing how quickly my eyes crossed as things got pushed closer towards my face. I think the eye test took about 40 minutes - but the ophthalmologist and I did spend about half of that talking about the Le Mans 24hr race...
After that, a 20 minute wait before seeing the doctor, who looked in my eyes and ears, listened to my heart and lungs with a stethoscope, tested my reflexes and did the 'cough' test
. He seemed happy and printed out my medical certificate - and just before signing it I heard the horrible words "Oh no, just a minute, this needs looking at...
....no, no we can't have this....
....
...your surname's come out all in capital letters!"
Syntax fixed, certificate signed and I was on cloud nine! The whole thing took about three and a half hours from start to finish, though at times it felt much longer. £344 well spent... Best of luck with your medical!
Thanks for offering to get me on the Facebook group - I'll drop you a note if I can work out the pprune messaging function...