News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment. Parent comment

Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by exhilaration on Thursday February 09, 2023 @03:50PM (#34731237)
A good quarter of the country is medically barred from ever flying

Can you explain this further?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by selectodude on Thursday February 09, 2023 @04:41PM (#34731936)
If you’ve basically ever taken an SSRI, or been to a shrink, you auto-fail your medical.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by madrush2014 on Friday February 10, 2023 @03:04PM (#34744994)
I didn't see that as a black-label warning on the drug information sheet for fluoxetine, or even as being a minor side effect. My shrink didn't mention anything about auto-failing a PPL medical either, but I suspect that was because he was a Freudian.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by nimish on Thursday February 09, 2023 @04:47PM (#34732005)
Just about everyone who has ever undergone psychiatric care cannot ever get a medical. There is technically a process but it is extremely difficult and expensive.

Some conditions are uniformly disqualifying, for good reasons. But it results in a perverse situation where a regular person can choose to either get mental health care or fly, but not both.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by rkochman on Friday February 10, 2023 @11:31PM (#34749594)
People also choose to lie to the FAA.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by madrush2014 on Saturday February 11, 2023 @01:15PM (#34754708)
I know reality is sometimes different from official policy, but for the record, straight from the horse's mouth:

https://www.faa.gov/pilot-mental-fitness

For me it's completely moot. I can't even have someone else fly me anymore--I have an (apparently untreatable) eustachian tube dysfunction.

...which is probably for the best given my bearish position on aviation.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by heelix on Thursday February 09, 2023 @05:05PM (#34732270)
Pilots don't suffer from depression, smoke pot, take many types of medication as a child, or have many other issues because if you did - the FAA might pull your medical and you can't fly after that. It can cost tens of thousands to try to get the FAA to let you fly again if a medical gets botched. And that is still an if...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by blantonl on Friday February 10, 2023 @08:28AM (#34739357)
Pilots don't suffer from depression, smoke pot, take many types of medication as a child, or have many other issues

Oh my sweet summer child.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by bsder on Thursday February 09, 2023 @06:16PM (#34733129)
Getting treated for cancer, for example, effectively bars you from flying. There are lots of medical things like this.

If these things are that bad, those same people shoudn't be driving either. And this is probably true. However, if you applied these same restrictions to driving, people would absolutely go nuts on you.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment by GeoffKnauth on Friday February 10, 2023 @01:36AM (#34736378)
No, that is not true. I got treated for cancer two years ago (surgery and radiation), it was contained (not metastatic), I have twice since passed a Class 2 Medical. I talked to my Aeromedical Examiner, I talked with my treating doctors, they talked to each other, it worked out -- so far.
[ Parent | on HN ]