One Final FAX Blitz Finally Dislodged the Application

By ANN Correspondent Juan Jimenez

Question: What does it take to save a special issuance third class medical application from getting sucked into oblivion inside the Black Hole of Oklahoma?

Answer: A blitz of FAX's.

A few weeks ago ANN published a three-part series in which this reporter related the story of how what should have been a simple special issuance process had turned into a nine-month ordeal with no end in sight. The series ended with the application stuck somewhere in limbo, on an anonymous reviewer's desk.

In the meanwhile, the computer said that the Fort Worth regional office was handling the matter, and the folks in Fort Worth responded that they had sent it to Oklahoma.

Just before I left on a trip to California and Vancouver to teach folks how to program in a computer language called C# (pronounced "see-sharp") under Microsoft's .NET Framework, I decided that I was going to try a different approach.

I sent FAX's to my representative in Congress and both my Senators, appealing to them for assistance in the matter, with a copy of the three-part article.

I then sent a FAX to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, politely asking if I she could please help me resolve this issue, and followed that up with another FAX to the Aeromedical Department in Oklahoma, to notify them that I had sent those four FAX's.

To my surprise, by the time I returned to Texas some nine days later, there was a letter from the FAA in my mailbox. I fully expected it to be a notification that someone was still trying to find my application, but when I opened it, I found that it contained a special issuance third class medical! For the next few minutes my neighbors stood at their windows, dumbfounded, watching a grown man do a pretty good rendition of Snoopy's Happy Dance.

Not more than a few days later I had completed my BFR renewal, as well as two days of taildragger refresher in a Super Decathlon. I'm not ashamed to say that for a few minutes I was so nervous I couldn't remember the difference between manifold pressure and RPM. Thank goodness that the CFI, whom I had amply warned about how long it had been since I had last flown, had plenty of patience and gently nudged me back into proficiency.

Finally, back in the saddle again. Words cannot describe the feeling, and those of you who have gone through what I have experienced know exactly what I mean.

Do the FAA Aeromedical folks deserve a Thank You?

Of course they do. 

Notwithstanding all the difficulties, screwups and frustration, they did come through for me in the end. I hope we all learned something from this experience.  In my case I learned to eat better, quit smoking, take better care of myself and never, ever assume that the medical package is complete and on its way to Oklahoma.

FMI: www.faa.gov