Medical Certificate
My CFI asked if I had my medical yet. I cannot solo until I have a current medical certificate.
My dilemma is that I have LASIK Surgery scheduled for January 11, so I was wanting to wait until the surgery was finished before getting the medical to avoid have a "must wear corrective lenses" restriction on my medical certificate.
Well, there are some issues with LASIK and aviation medicals. They aren't big issues, but there may be a period of time that has to elapse before I can get my medical certificate after the surgery, which means I would have to wait even longer to solo. The AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) may want me to wait until my eyes have stablized after the surgery.
So, I called the AME that I'm going to use to ask a few questions. I decided to use this particular AME because his office is about 5 minutes from my house. I was nice to hear from my instructor that this AME is the best one I could have found. Not only is he a very good AME, he also has an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) ration, which means he's an experienced pilot too -- In addition, The Observer might be interested in the fact that this Doctor is a DO, not an MD. The receptionist was not too helpful, but it isn't her job to necessarily know the nuances of what makes or breaks a medical decision with regard to a aviation medical certificate. So, I made an appointment to try to get my class-3 medical certificate with "the great healer" (inside joke with The Observer) for the day after Christmas. My next lesson is on the 27th. If the medical goes well, I should have my medical/student pilot certificate and I'll be ready to solo as soon as my CFI thinks I'm ready.
The tricky part is, I'll probably have to ground myself for a week or two after my surgery, then go in to reaccomplish the vision part of the exam after that in order to be eligible to fly again. If I don't solo before my LASIK surgery, there is still an advantage to getting it done now. Getting the medical out of the way now will help if I need to get a waiver from the FAA. If I need a waiver, I won't be medically cleared until the AME gets an answer back from the FAA about whatever issue. It'll mean I have to wait awhile to solo, but the clock will start sooner rather than later.
I'll let you know how the medical exam went next week. Until then, happy holidays.
