Friday, June 28, 2013

Got Medical Back.

For those that know me, you will know that I voluntarily lost my medical as a result of starting on a subscription of Cymbalta In Dec 2011. 

It has been an interesting adventure.
First of all, a little background:  I struggled with a setback to my ability to handle adversity and stress, a result of being an optimistic perfectionist and placing myself in an unfortunate  no-win work situation. 
In any case, after consulting a doctor and deciding to take care of myself, I trusted Transport Canada's web page (Link => http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/publications/tp13312-2-psychiatry-menu-2187.htm ) which indicated that this would have a minor impact on the status of my license.

It says, in part "Medical Certification will be considered on a case-by-case basis after review of the required elements outline below. Medical Certification may be granted where the underlying disorder is of a discrete nature with a favourable prospect of low recurrence in the future." and
"The Category 1 aviator who is stable on medication will be required to undergo evaluation by a psychiatrist every 6 months for the duration of treatment, plus six months after medication cessation to insure stability."

The reality is a completely different story however.  Basically, Transport Canada has not authorized a Medical for anyone on SSRI's in a long time. 

The irony of this does not escape logical analysis.  Basically, if you are Depressed and possibly Suicidal, is seems Ok to fly an airplane, but if you are being successfully treated for same, you must stay on the ground!.

In any case, I went on the drug and elected to both ground myself and also to officially inform TC. 
I promptly received a nice letter that said in short, "let us know when you are off the drug and we will consider letting you fly". 

After 1 year and 4 months on the drug, I decided that I would try facing the world without benefit of this chemical "correction" and found that I had in fact benefitted from the drugs by understanding how to be less concerned with what might go wrong, and focus more on what is good about today.  "Live for the moment" and all that stuff.

So anyway, I am off the drugs, happy, and have my medical back. 


Friday, February 22, 2013

Belly Landing at High River

Just for the record, my first flight (a ride actually) of 2012 was ride in Al Logan's Mooney to High River on 6/7/2012.
Unfortunately, due to a faulty switch, the gear did not come fully down and we made a rather dramatic belly landing. 
Here is a picture of us getting the plane off the runway.