Australia Fights Drug Addiction with Flying Lessons
Thread Starter
Australia Fights Drug Addiction with Flying Lessons
The experience of flying a plane as it stalls is being used as part of a rehabilitation programme in Australia.
Under the scheme, young people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction are briefly put in charge of a light aircraft.
It is designed to help them take control of their lives.
Video from BBC: Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons - BBC News
Under the scheme, young people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction are briefly put in charge of a light aircraft.
It is designed to help them take control of their lives.
Video from BBC: Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons - BBC News
Last edited by Pearly White; 14th Mar 2018 at 10:11.
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 325
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons - BBC News
Small issue with your link so I've added it here.
Small issue with your link so I've added it here.
Thread Starter
Australia fights drug addiction with plane flying lessons - BBC News
Small issue with your link so I've added it here.
Small issue with your link so I've added it here.
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Global Citizen
Posts: 144
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Really good, positive stuff!
I reckon that a similar project, to address depressed young men and women, would be a great idea too.
(I accept that identifying them is a major issue.)
From my own experiences of suffering very badly from depression in my early twenties, I learnt to fly GA. That gave me so much more self worth, particularly upon my first solo that I've never looked back.
I reckon that a similar project, to address depressed young men and women, would be a great idea too.
(I accept that identifying them is a major issue.)
From my own experiences of suffering very badly from depression in my early twenties, I learnt to fly GA. That gave me so much more self worth, particularly upon my first solo that I've never looked back.
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Currently: A landlocked country with high terrain, otherwise Melbourne, Australia + Washington D.C.
Posts: 396
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Any issues getting or holding a medical with depression or, did you withhold that information?
@gerry111: Obviously I'm not aware of the specifics of your case and I am very glad that this experience helped you move forward but you mention suffering very badly from depression so I am assuming that you were indeed a long shot from being just unhappy about life.
How, in your opinion, does your experience fighting depression with learning to fly compare with that of those infamous airline pilots who deliberately crashed their aircraft because they were suffering from depression?
I am sorry if the question is a little forward and personal but I am very interested especially because there seems to be a general belief in aviation authorities that the PIC must be mentally stable and enjoy life. The other way to see this is that one could rightfully argue that putting a depressed person in a command of an aircraft is akin to placing a loaded gun in their hand.
I would like to think the dual flying training program mentioned is for self esteem and confidence building, by doing something they would not normally do in their own lives. I do not think the goal is to licence them and let them be PIC with mental health issues.
Awesome job being done by the people running and flying these flights! You guys are Saints!
Awesome job being done by the people running and flying these flights! You guys are Saints!
How, in your opinion, does your experience fighting depression with learning to fly compare with that of those infamous airline pilots who deliberately crashed their aircraft because they were suffering from depression?
I am sorry if the question is a little forward and personal but I am very interested especially because there seems to be a general belief in aviation authorities that the PIC must be mentally stable and enjoy life. The other way to see this is that one could rightfully argue that putting a depressed person in a command of an aircraft is akin to placing a loaded gun in their hand.
I am sorry if the question is a little forward and personal but I am very interested especially because there seems to be a general belief in aviation authorities that the PIC must be mentally stable and enjoy life. The other way to see this is that one could rightfully argue that putting a depressed person in a command of an aircraft is akin to placing a loaded gun in their hand.
The actions of the germanwings and Silk Air pilots' were simply criminal acts. As was that of an Australian pilot who hired a Cessna and crashed into the Pacific ocean, a while back. When I was at my lowest, I didn't contemplate doing anything that could harm others or their property. So no thoughts of crashing my car head-on into a truck, for example.
I'll tell you that prior to learning to fly, I went through the worst. Learning to fly was my way to get out of my lowest and for me it worked.
Eventually the then CAA granted me a Student Pilot's Licence, after my doctor shopping was discovered. In 1984 I sent a sincere 'mea culpa', prior to that.
Please be aware that depression is not uncommon, particularly amongst male youth. You may be fortunate to have avoided it. So far.
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Currently: A landlocked country with high terrain, otherwise Melbourne, Australia + Washington D.C.
Posts: 396
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
@gerry111: I know that depression in young males is still a taboo in western societies and a marginalizing factor if you consider how many institutions consider those suffering as ``unfit'' for particular tasks. This is why your experience to overcome depression by learning to fly should actually be more shared in my opinion. I'm glad you came through and told us here and hope you're still actively flying.
And this is the reason many choose to suffer in silence rather than seeking help for their condition.
We don't fear people with depression sharing the roads with us or driving buses and cars.
There is a big difference between suffering from depression and the potential to be a mass murderer like the lunatic on the German Wings A320.
The overwhelming majority of individuals who do decide to take their own lives, will not physically harm anyone else in the process. Despite having access to lethal weapons such as a motor vehicle or knives.
There is a big difference between suffering from depression and the potential to be a mass murderer like the lunatic on the German Wings A320.
The overwhelming majority of individuals who do decide to take their own lives, will not physically harm anyone else in the process. Despite having access to lethal weapons such as a motor vehicle or knives.
(RIP Michael Powers, 29th October 2017.)
Well said GIII and mike. Very well said.
In my submission to the review of aviation medical certification I made this point: If every pilot with any hint of a mental health ‘issue’ is going to be treated as a potential GermanWings tragedy, the outcome will be that pilots and potential pilots won’t be willing to utter a single syllable about any potential mental health ‘issue’ to anyone. They won’t be willing to disclose, for fear of it getting back to an overreaching bureaucracy and employers with hyper-sensitivity to risk. The outcome would be - and I apologise for my deliberate black humour - a depressingly bad outcome for health and safety.
When I reflect on the bouts of depression I’ve had - fortunately a very long time ago - I consider myself lucky that the DAMEs at the time didn’t treat depression as a potential aviation disaster. During those periods I could have flown an aircraft through the roof of Parliament House on any one of hundreds occasions. Did I ever consider doing so? Nope. I had the opportunity to sabotage the Prime Minister’s and Governor-General’s aircraft a thousand times. Did I ever consider doing so? Nope. Such things were - and remain - utterly abhorrent to me.
Would I say anything to a DAME if I thought I was suffering symptoms of depression again in the future? Given what’s been done to some medical certificate applicants over the recent past, and given my first-hand experience with an overreaching medical bureaucracy during the last couple of medical certificate applications, I’d have to think very, very hard about the risks before saying anything. Others will have to make their own decision.
Hopefully the actions - when they are taken - out of the review of medical certification will go some way to restoring faith and confidence in the integral part that medical certification is supposed to play in aviation safety, rather than it continuing to be - as a result of relatively-recent changes - a deliberate ‘obstacle course’. It’s become an obstacle course in which any stumble or fall is seized upon to justify intervention, testing, restrictions and, ultimately, impairment and destruction of someone’s career or life’s passion. As alluded to earlier, the people driving petrol tankers on the road next to the school that our kids/grandkids attend don’t have to negotiate the same obstacle course.
In my submission to the review of aviation medical certification I made this point: If every pilot with any hint of a mental health ‘issue’ is going to be treated as a potential GermanWings tragedy, the outcome will be that pilots and potential pilots won’t be willing to utter a single syllable about any potential mental health ‘issue’ to anyone. They won’t be willing to disclose, for fear of it getting back to an overreaching bureaucracy and employers with hyper-sensitivity to risk. The outcome would be - and I apologise for my deliberate black humour - a depressingly bad outcome for health and safety.
When I reflect on the bouts of depression I’ve had - fortunately a very long time ago - I consider myself lucky that the DAMEs at the time didn’t treat depression as a potential aviation disaster. During those periods I could have flown an aircraft through the roof of Parliament House on any one of hundreds occasions. Did I ever consider doing so? Nope. I had the opportunity to sabotage the Prime Minister’s and Governor-General’s aircraft a thousand times. Did I ever consider doing so? Nope. Such things were - and remain - utterly abhorrent to me.
Would I say anything to a DAME if I thought I was suffering symptoms of depression again in the future? Given what’s been done to some medical certificate applicants over the recent past, and given my first-hand experience with an overreaching medical bureaucracy during the last couple of medical certificate applications, I’d have to think very, very hard about the risks before saying anything. Others will have to make their own decision.
Hopefully the actions - when they are taken - out of the review of medical certification will go some way to restoring faith and confidence in the integral part that medical certification is supposed to play in aviation safety, rather than it continuing to be - as a result of relatively-recent changes - a deliberate ‘obstacle course’. It’s become an obstacle course in which any stumble or fall is seized upon to justify intervention, testing, restrictions and, ultimately, impairment and destruction of someone’s career or life’s passion. As alluded to earlier, the people driving petrol tankers on the road next to the school that our kids/grandkids attend don’t have to negotiate the same obstacle course.
Years ago I read a story of a young black male teenager who was in trouble with the law, wggign school, in a gang etc. he was headed down the wrong path. A magistrate assigned him a mentor who was a PPL. Apparently a short flight sparked a passion he did not know he had and started going to school again. His grades improved to such a degree he was offered a 4 year scholarship at a decent university. To cut to the chase, some years later he graduated as a US Navy Figher Pilot on a carrier. I believe that the original magistrate was on the carrier to see him land an F14. A very heart warming story.
