What a difference a Dame makes...

[vne165]

This week, a Class 2 successfully obtained with no issues.

The gentleman concerned happened to be the pres of the local flying club and the proud owner of an A36.
Thorough but fair assessment of my health, objective being to get me through.
Issued on the spot, even printed for my viewing pleasure.
I have to say, that the whole experience, AVMED portal and all, was speed-bump free. All done for under $400

For comparison, and in parallel I did a Motorsport Australia medical for my circuit racing licence.
Needed more tests (fasting bloods and resting ECG) than the class 2 to drive an little open wheeler race car around a closed track.
Will be >$400 by the time I'm done, same validity period.

Not all is lost it seems.

[evilducky]

It’s not all doom and gloom on the Avmed side of things. I’ve had several losses of medical over the past however many years and every single time both my DAME and Avmed have been professional, supportive and wanting to get me back in the air again.

Avmed clearly laid out the path to reinstatement of medical and specified exactly what I needed to do to get my medical back, both in terms of timing and tests/reports. At the end of grounding periods, Avmed provided my new certificate within 24-48 hours of all tests and reports being submitted.

Not saying there aren’t horror stories, but plenty of good outcomes happening as well.

[Horatio Leafblower]

Mate of mine had a medical problem that necessitated a 12 month grounding.
After his renewal, they said it would be 4 months before they got to his application.
When they got to his application after 4 months, they rejected it because all his specialist reports were over 3 months old :rolleyes:

Rang CASA today, 14th March, and their voicemail message proudly stated that they are currently processing medical certificate applications from 07 January.

[Clinton McKenzie]

If you are allowed to drive a private vehicle on public roads vne165, a Class 2 medical is a waste of time and money. This is the 21st century in a nation with first-world medical facilities and professionals.

Some in CASA Avmed may believe they’re the last bastion between aviation carnage and aviation safety, but they are delusional. The experiment has been run and the results are in.

Most CASA Avmed activity and requirements these days - including in relation to Class 1's - are a harmful overreaction to exaggerated risks, creating little more than busy-work and data points for research. (A glaring recent example was the trans-Tasman crusade on which CVD zealots in the NZ CAA and CASA Avmed were allowed to go, destroying lives, careers and life's passions in their wake.)

For a range of reasons, I had to drive to Adelaide and back from the east coast three times over the last few months. Mercifully, I flew the most recent trip. Which do you reckon was the more stressful and risky:

- 11 hours on the highway?

- 3.5 hours at 9,500’?

[vne165]

Hi Clinton,
I can't speak to Class 1 medical requirements, but for me on a personal level, the class 2 and motorsport medicals are probably the only time every couple of years I get a medical inspection done, unless it's for a new employment contract somewhere. So in that sense I'm happy to do them - it benchmarks my health every so often, luckily all ok again this time around.
I thought the Class 2 checks were appropriately targeted, not too over the top. My original post highlighted the fact that the motorsport checks were more onerous than the Class 2.

That said, I'm an ardent spotter and call-out for make-work, so I don't disagree with you there.

But I don't accept the argument that if I can drive a car, I should automatically be able to fly on the strength of that.
Rather, maybe we need to be a little more prescriptive on health checks for drivers, a position perhaps supported by your road trip argument above.
Some states do have medical checks for drivers after a certain age already I think.

The thread was just intended to highlight that sometimes, the system works ok in my opinion.

[Clinton McKenzie]

We are charged a fee for the 'service'. It should 'work ok' always.

Folks who've been flying under the auspices of e.g. the GFA and RAAus for decades are trusted to manage their own medical fitness, and they can fly in controlled airspace and they share the skies with RPT heavy metal. What makes the pilots of aircraft with the letters "VH" painted on the tail less trusted than GFA/RAAus pilots?

Someone will usually pipe up and point breathlessly to things like night flying. My response is: Please, it's the 21st century and this is Australia.

Back when I started flying (36 years ago) I had to go to an ophthalmologist who put special drops in my eyes to disable the accommodation function so as to measure levels of longsightedness or shortsightedness. Eyes didn't work properly for around a couple of hours afterwards. In the 21st century, there's a gizmo that's held in front of the eyes for a couple of seconds and that's it. Number read out from a digital display.

I go to my optometrist every couple of years - the check up is bulk billed - and he does all of the latest checks with all the latest gizmos. I can pass my pilot eyesight checks with glasses that are 3 prescriptions out of date. As if I'm going to suddenly start flying around without being able to read maps, the instrument panel and the rego of aircraft some distance away, if I no longer had to go through the 2 yearly insult to my intelligence and integrity that is the Avmed medical process.

[tossbag]

the class 2 and motorsport medicals are probably the only time every couple of years I get a medical inspection done

Yeah, I'd be little wary of thinking you're getting a check up through these medicals. From personal experience, a serious condition not picked up until the 50's, after 30 years of class one medicals. It was only a DAME that was very persistent and kept testing and testing until the problem was found, something that the other 10 or 15 previous should have been doing.

The ridiculous tests that are performed over and over again, another case of believing the science. One particular persons science that is, to suit a narrative.

[Clinton McKenzie]

You make an important point, tossbag.

I’m going to take the liberty of re-phrasing what you said, and I will of course apologise if you disagree with my re-phrasing:

“It was only a competent medical practitioner (who was, coincidentally, a DAME and) who was persistent and kept testing and testing until the problem was found.”

Among the chronic problems created by the mystique of aviation is the perception that there’s some incredibly important insight that only Avmed and its ordained ‘DAMEs’ have into the medical fitness of pilots. My advice to everyone is that any idiot with access to the internet can do what Avmed currently does. If you’re concerned about some issue that you consider could have an impact on your medical fitness to fly, consult with and rely on the advice of medical practitioners who are actually experts in their field.

[Horatio Leafblower]

Can anyone give me a good reason for doing and re-doing the Ishihara plates every bloody year? Is CVD something that spontaneously erupts?

[tossbag]

“It was only a competent medical practitioner (who was, coincidentally, a DAME and) who was persistent and kept testing and testing until the problem was found.”

That is exactly the case.

Out of all of the GP's I've visited over a fair few years, none of them have been as competent as this bloke

[Clinton McKenzie]

Can anyone give me a good reason for doing and re-doing the Ishihara plates every bloody year? Is CVD something that spontaneously erupts?Colour vision deficiencies do sometimes manifest themselves as we age. The more pertinent (evidence-based) question is: Why do we care about it in the cockpit of a civilian aircraft in the 21st century? As our more enlightened colleagues over the ditch finally concluded – embarrassing CASA into following suit – competence to the requisite standard is what matters. CVD as a medical issue in civil aviation is merely an anachronism from 19th century maritime navigation (and a nice little earner for a sector of the medical industry). No apology for the damage done by the CVD zealots on their crusade, though.

My ‘favourite’ two yearly stupidity is having to pass the Avmed eye test with two different pairs of glasses, as if doing that in a doctor’s surgery ‘proves’ that I have adequate spare vision correction available when I fly. I don’t even take the glasses I use and carry, when flying, to the Avmed examination.