Aeromedical Service Back To Pits After Administrator Promised
They Would Have Necessary Resources
By ANN Senior Contributing Editor Juan Jimenez
Last July, those of us
who attended EAA's AirVenture at Oshkosh remember the hoopla
surrounding the FAA's announcement that the final Sport Pilot Rule
was about to become the law of the land. The FAA made a lot of
noise... the EAA made a lot of noise... the media made a lot of
noise.
During one of the hoopla news conferences in one of the larger
open-air areas, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey joined Tom
Poberezny and a gaggle of EAA and FAA senior management employees
to talk about the new rule. They did their best to try to make
Sport Pilot come across as the best thing to happen to general
aviation since the introduction of the propeller.
Throughout all of this, I spent quite a bit of time thinking
about some of the issues that would come up given the FAA's
last-minute decision to pull the rug from under the feet of people
who had stopped flying because of medical reasons. These were the
pilots who thought they would be able to fly again without having
to pawn their first-born to pay for expensive medical tests, and
send mountains of paperwork into the gaping maw of the Black Hole
of Oklahoma.
Warnings bells went off in my head when I heard that these
people would be required to apply for and receive a special
issuance medical before they would be allowed to fly again without
a medical certificate. The folks from Aeromedical told everyone at
EAA that they weren't out to keep people from flying, but frankly,
very few of us believed them -- they just didn't seem sincere.
During one of the conferences, this reporter stood up and asked
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, point-blank, what she was going to
do so that Aeromedical would be prepared to handle the onslaught of
special issuance medical applications. Everyone knows that
first-time requests usually take as much as 12 months to slog their
way through the bureaucratic muck. It was clear to me that if
additional resources and manpower were not added, the situation
would turn worse -- much worse.
Ms. Blakey stood up, and so did Dr. Jon Jordan, head of FAA
Aeromedical, and they both stated they would work together to make
sure the department would have the necessary resources. Dr. Jordan
added he didn't think there would be a problem with the volume of
work, but again, he just didn't look like he believed what he was
saying. I kept hoping to myself that my gut feelings were all
wrong, but alas, it was not to be.
Fast forward nine months ahead. Back in January, I submitted
an application to renew a special issuance certificate, a
process that should take no more than thirty days. In the months
before that I had fought a battle with Oklahoma over a demand that
I change a couple of my medications -- something which every single
practicing medical doctor I talked to said was a
completely absurd request. Nevertheless, I was told that when
Aeromedical decides they want to be thick-headed about something,
it's not worth the time to fight them about their decisions, absurd
as they may seem. So, I changed medicines, waited a while and then
went to my AME with a letter from my doctor in hand, as
requested.
I guess my problem is
that I am too much of an optimist. I knew that Aeromedical would be
swamped, and my application would disappear into the swirling black
mists of the "examiner" corps. So far, it's taken three times as
much as it normally takes to get a response, and it appears that
Ms. Blakey has done it again -- she told us in no uncertain words
she would do something, but didn't follow through, or changed her
mind. A few weeks ago it was user fees, now it appears she never
did what she said she would do with Aeromedical. I thought perhaps
it was just my application, but I've talked to several other people
throughout the country and confirmed that their special issuance
renewals have also been stuck in limbo for months.
It's a pity, because I liked Ms. Blakey. I thought that she was
doing a great job at the FAA, and truly bringing positive change to
an organization that sorely needed it. I wanted to believe. Maybe
that was my mistake.
FMI: www.faa.gov