Flight surgeons..(AME)

A pilot's "best friend" or "worst enemy"

This recent article puts numbers to what we have known for a long long time. Indeed a flight surgeon (in the military) or an Aeromedical doctor (AME) in the civilian world is and has always been a pilot’s best friend….. and boom — worst enemy.

During my days as a AF flight surgeon, I found the most dreaded acronym for a pilot was the “DNIF” that means duties not involving flying. Or “You are grounded”.. And I am not surprised that the young full of vim vigor and testosterone military pilot is much less likely to “fess up” about his/her health condition. Yes we have some aggressive lady pilots and they have to be just like their male counterparts to play in that airborne arena.

I hope my FAA buddies and friends read this attached article as well. Point is, we cannot simply shrug off questions about COVID, COVID shots, myocarditis etc with the comment. —— “Oh well, federal regs require a pilot not act as pilot in command if…. taking certain medicines, illness of any sort.. the list goes on” Let us not be so blind to not realize the pilot will general “lie cheat and steal” to get in behind the controls… Yes I am a pilot, Yes I understand the tug..of going flying… but yes.. I know the consequences can be deadly for the pilot/ and or passengers if bad decisions are made. The FAA is now strongly into risk mitigation and the first step in that is the pilot.. no matter how many hours, how much qualification. If he/she is not well - they should not act as pilot in command. But — can we the flight surgeon always rely upon the pilot self reporting illness? Maybe not so much.

For the doctors, pilots and potential passengers.. this is a sobering article from a military newspaper.

Military Pilots Avoid Health Care to Keep Flying, New Study Suggests

By David Roza

U.S. military pilots avoid health care or misrepresent and withhold health information from their flight surgeon at greater rates than civilian pilots out of fear they might lose their flying status, according to a new study conducted by Air Force and civilian medical experts. Though the population size of 264 military pilots surveyed was relatively small, the study marks one of the first attempts to scientifically analyze the widely-held belief that military pilots avoid health care, particularly mental health care, out of fear that certain medical conditions will take them off flight status.

or here is the link…

Sick pilots?