CASA medicals...
 

Howdy people,

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Anyway I'm a student pilot with Proflite at Bankstown and I went for my class 2 medical for my solo like almost 4 weeks ago. Paid the processing fee and all that and I'm STILL waiting for the medical, even though the CASA bloke said it'd only take a week to get back to me. So now my training has sorta dropped off cos there's not much else I can do before I get the medical to go solo.

So basically I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same kinda fart arsing around that CASA seem to be good at?

Cheers,
Andrew...

First question: Did you pay CASA and have you got the reciept? They have apparently had a little trouble matching payments to medicals, in which case you will get a letter about non payment, but maybe this has all been cleared up by now.

Best advice is to ring CLARC quote your ARN and politely enquire.

Welcome Bankstownboy,

Unfortunately the current delay on medicals seems to be pretty standard at the moment! It has been since the $130 CASA processing fee was put into place. From experience, It shouldnt take much longer than 4 weeks so hopefully you wont get held up in you training too much longer! Perhaps give CASA a call and check its progress.

At least the delay for medicals isn't nearly as bad as the delay we all experienced with ASICs earlier this year :rolleyes: Most of our students are being delayed at the moment because of SPLs/ASICs and Medicals, though it seems to be improving!

Cheers,

Mo.

Your DAME should have issued you a temporary medical certificate which is normally valid for 6 weeks or so, so there shouldn't be any disruption to your training.

Nothing unusual about waiting up to 6-8 weeks.
Last time I had a delay I called the CASA medical section, waited on hold for about 30 minutes before I finally spoke to someone. Then after I explained why I needed the new medical quickly they processed it on the same day. Give em a call.

CASA baloney...
 

Bankstownboy,
I would suggest tongue in cheek that you consider this part of your training...:sad:
You ask if "anyone else has experienced the same kinda fart arsing around that CASA seem to be good at?"
I would hazard a guess that there's not a pilot anywhere in this country that has not been adversely affected at some point by CASA's horsesh!t. This extends to owners, operators, engineers, indeed anyone who's got anything to do with the game.
The only people who get anything (except irritation and inflated costs) out of CASA, in my experiece, are CASA. :mad: :ouch:
CR. (three deep breaths now old mate).

Yes
 

Yes, and it's killing GA. Maybe that is what they are trying to do?

Tis OK. My medical took two weeks exactly to reach me.








Two months later and they still hevan't docked the credit card though :rolleyes:

It took 4 weeks for my class 1 to be processed and sent to me and still have not been docked for it. :E

But on the other hand, I'm still waiting for my ASIC after 3 months .. although they've already docked me for that 6 weeks ago! :confused:

My DAME told me this doesn't happen anymore and that I had to wait for the official docket to arrive from CASA. Can anyone else confirm?

Bankstownboy

You have to remember that CASA is another extremely efficient government run agency, and they probably have a perfectly good reason for not sending your medical :ugh: :}....... Like figuring out how to spend all that extra money they are getting from that :mad: rediculous processing fee :E which is supposed to make them even more efficient :hmm:

Ive had that problem many a time, not only myself but others, just keep calling them and talk to them about sending it to you by fax :ugh:

Also, if you havnt yet applied for an AVID or ASIC... id start applying now so you might get it before the end of 2007 :E

Good Luck and keep hasseling them, it will eventually work :ok:

Turbz:cool:

That's correct. DAMEs are no longer permitted to issue the temporary initial certificate.

Cheers,

BM

Well by the grace of god Australia Post amazingly enough managed to get my medical to me today!

Didn't even have a chance to annoy CASA about it or anything, guess I can thank PPrune for such a hasty delivery. Must post on here more often when I want something. :p

Anyway off to the flying school I go tomorrow, and in the next 2 lessons time or so I should be soloing. Just gotta touch up on that flaring a bit more.

Cheers for all the info pruners...

I've had similar problems. Seems that between the DAME's and CASA, there are quite a few opportunties for stuff to go astray. To be fair to the folk in the office down there, when you get through (can take 15 mins or so), they do try to help as much as possible. The problems are rarely under their control (which is the biggest problem) so they have to go and remind some medical officer to sign something or some DAME to send in the form and other info. They also told me they cannot do anything until the $130 is confirmed and that causes even more 'admin' problems becaue they end up chasing the money sometimes. Apparently they have been moved and the senior medic has been 'away' - so there's been a bit of log jam that mine was caught up in. However, they did get in through on the very last day, after a 30 day extension - and some of the problems were not their fault at all. I really think the people in the office try very hard to help.

I don't see why CASA cannot bow out of the 'within limits' Class 2's and even Class 1's. There is no reason why a no problems initial issue Class 2 applicant should not get a certificate issued by the DAME on the spot. CASA don't need to be involved - or don't they trust their DAME's? The administrative challenges (and the cost) could be avoided so that they could just focus on 'outside limits' problems (like me!).

DAME can no longer issue a temporary medical certificate for INITIAL medicals, however they can issue a two month temporary certificate for renewals.

You can wait up to the full two months for the medical to come through.

"DAME can no longer issue a temporary medical certificate for INITIAL medicals"

Now, that's real bureaucratic bulls**t if true - what do CASA do over and above what the DAME does? Stamp the form and enter it in the computer, I'd hazard a guess (and say $130, thanks very much).
I find it ridiculous that an accredited DAME cannot immediately provide a student pilot with a temporary medical certificate so he or she can go and get stuck into the training straight away.

Or am I being a bit harsh?

Medicals
 

CASA are getting better, I had a problem and after a respectful phone call to CB it was fixed up on the day and faxed through to me so I could keep working. There are not that many in the Department, so be polite and respectful and things work.
Kickatinalong.:ok: :ok: :ok:

mmm............now I have been dealing with CASA for many years as a LAME and have not had any unreasonable delays in any licence, exam apps or other determinations I have requested. My latest licence renewal was returned in 10 days. Really I cannot complain and it did not make any difference to my work.

Now I am not saying that some of you out there haven't had a bad run but then I have spent considereable time trying to get service from private enterprise companies just as you may have with CASA (I remember clearly a telco that couldn't get the line to work properly ever and an airconditioning company that well.... was just hopeless and in the end I changed my entire system to get away from the poor service).

The point I make is that there is good service and bad service and you get both from government and private enterprise. Just cause something is private doesn't make it efficient (darn lot of GA aircraft sitting around all day waiting for something to happen) and just cause it is CASA doesn't mean it is the worst of the worst.

TH (bring balance to the farce)

Welcome to the CASA system.

Take a ticket and wait patiently :)