The Xyla Foxlin Story

The flying public and pilots alike want assurance that the people flying general aviation airplanes and airliners are not going to experience a mental health issue or episode while at the controls. 

However, many pilots would also agree that the FAA’s approach to medical certification remains antiquated and is in need of an overhaul particularly regarding mental health evaluations and treatments.

Xyla Foxlin is a social media personality who is an accomplished electronic engineer which allows her to build things she likes, such as campers, boats, airplanes, and rockets. As she says, “Things that travel and take you on adventures.”

She is also a private pilot and proud owner of a 1946 Cessna 140, which she purchased in 2021 with her YouTube earnings and flew from the East Coast to the West Coast. Flying has been her passion since childhood, and that passion comes through as she describes her experience on numerous adventures in her airplane.

When she had her medicated IUD replaced she was aware that during the first year, it releases nearly double the amount of progesterone than during the subsequent four years. The flood of hormone caused Xyla to experience a prolonged period of depression that lasted well beyond what she had experienced previously.

Xyla discussed it first with her gynecologist who essentially dismissed her concerns. But her primary care doctor agreed and said Xyla may want to meet with a psychiatrist to help her. Unfortunately, Xyla admits, she did not make clear to her primary doc that she was a pilot and her doctor entered “Major Depressive Disorder” on her chart so she could get a referral to the psychiatrist.

After posting a video expressing her dissatisfaction with the gynecologist, who was a female, and women’s health care in general, someone reported her video to the FAA. The agency subsequently demanded she send in treatment notes from her gynecologist, psychiatrist, and primary care doc, and also ordered her to see an aviation psychiatrist.

The aviation psychiatrist session was very questionable in scope and tone, covering her relationships, sexual history, and experiences going back to grade school. When Xyla said she was in a long-term relationship, he reacted with shock. His questions were very intrusive and seemingly irrelevant to a meaningful psych evaluation. Xyla’s therapist was equally shocked when told about the aviation psychiatrist’s questions, and his clinical evaluation that Xyla suffered from “Histrionic Personality Disorder,” and wondered what his agenda was.

It's important to note that Xyla was back to normal for some time and in peak mental health at the time of her appointment with the aviation psychiatrist, and that she passed the cognitive exam portion with flying colors.

After receiving all the requested reports, the FAA denied Xyla’s medical.

E-I-C Note: As the author of "Air Of Injustice" -- the book about the FAA's ill-conceived victimization of Bob Hoover some years ago (and one of their most shameful actions), way too much of Xyla's story follows parallels of unfairness, discrimination (age discrimination, in Bob's case), and Feds making up rules as they went along. Attempts to contact the FAA have gone nowhere and we have confidence that Ms. Foxlin's details appear accurate. We wish Ms. Foxlin a speedy return to flight status and urge the FAA stop this harassment, discrimination, misogynistic behavior and restore her Airman's priviledges ASAP. The story is bizarre and reflects poorly on the entire aviation community at a time when we are trying to welcome all into our ranks. The FAA should feel shame, extreme shame, over these actions... period. -- Jim Campbell, ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief 

Continued in Part II

FMI:  www.youtube.com/