A Difficult Road Back

I’m getting older. So are you. Sometimes as we age, we encounter a health issue—not even necessarily serious or life threatening—that keeps us out of the cockpit for a while. That’s my story and now I’m trying to come back. Here’s how.

My timing was bad. I opted for a beneficial surgery that kept me out of action for a total of six months. During that time, my medical expired, I’m out of instrument currency, my CFI certificate needs renewal, and my insurance-required annual recurrent training lapsed. As if that’s not enough, my plane fell out of annual.

So, first lesson learned is that if I ever know I’ll need to stop flying for a period during which one (all?) of those important requirements might expire, I’ll take care of them beforehand so I when I’m ready and safe to fly again, I can just hop in and go—with an instructor, of course.

But I didn’t do that. So now what?

Plane, Then Pilot

I’ve got a rather complex airplane and the annual requires up to a couple months at the shop. (Yeah, I know. It should only require a couple weeks, but with shop backlogs and such, well…) So, when I began to foresee my return to the skies, I got the plane scheduled into the shop and another pilot flew it there. My plane should have a fresh annual about the same time I’m legal and insured. OK, next?

I’m not legally instrument current, and I’m sure as ever no longer proficient. While recurrent training can be an element in that, I wanted to get in some work ahead of time so my instructor doesn’t laugh (again) when he asks, incredulously, if I really do have an ATP. So, instrument proficiency was next up, but with no airplane I’ve got to use a sim. Fortunately, I’m not so far gone the FAA requires an IPC, so I can use a sim for all I need. I’ve got that scheduled and will be heading into “the box” a couple days next week. If that’s not enough, I’ll go back. Train to proficiency, you know…

My medical expired. Since I don’t want to risk a failure from conditions lingering but still improving after my surgery, I opted to get a consultation appointment with an AME before actually going for the medical. In fact, in a belt-and-suspenders approach, I’ve scheduled a consultation with two AMEs, just to ensure there’d be no surprises. I’ve had the first and found that my current-but-improving condition after the surgery shouldn’t be a problem.

But that consultation uncovered an unrelated potential hiccup that might need more effort, partly as a result of changing to a new AME—who doesn’t have any history with me—since the doc who signed my last medical has retired. To minimize any problems from that, I need a letter from my primary. It takes time to schedule that appointment and get the letter written. That requires more lead time. I wish I’d started this earlier. Lesson learned: Deal with the medical first.

Trusted friends suggested I pursue BasicMed. Good idea and that’s on tomorrow’s agenda, but I really need the FAA Medical since I like to fly my aircraft in the flight levels, which I couldn’t do under BasicMed. Many pilots hold both (belt and suspenders, remember?), keeping the BasicMed as a backup. I’d rather fly below FL180 under BasicMed than not at all, or even rather than waiting months longer for the wheels of the FAA to grind out my final approval.

Of course, one of the prerequisites for BasicMed is to have held an FAA Medical recently and not have been denied one. While I don’t expect a denial, I don’t want to get into the potential kerfuffle of not yet having passed while I await a ruling from the FAA or even a special issuance. I’ll adjust my scheduled appointment with my primary care physician already set to ask for that letter, so I can have him do the BasicMed exam, too.

My consultation with the second AME is still ahead. This gives me time to gather all the documentation I might need. That AME has suggested my exam for the FAA Medical immediately follow the consultation if the consultation goes well. That should work well.

Training

I’ve scheduled recurrent training for just a few days after that second AME appointment. By then I should be instrument current and hopefully proficient, my plane will be annualed, and I’ll have some form of medical approval to fly. That leaves the CFI renewal, and that’s the next part of the story. For those of you who don’t know, unlike a pilot certificate a CFI certificate expired every two years until recent changes.

Now, like a pilot certificate, the CFI doesn’t expire, but requires periodic refresher training to remain usable. I needed to complete that by the end of August, so even while laid up in the hospital I began thinking about that. One form of that training is known by the somewhat awkward name FIRC, or flight instructor refresher clinic. I’ve always opted to take my FIRC online and I’ve just completed this go around and will be submitting my paperwork this week.

The FIRC is like continuing ed for instructors and, if taken in person, requires two days. Thus, the online versions require lengthy self-study. Knowing that, and wanting to find ways to remain engaged in aviation, I began my FIRC studies in July. Having a passion for most things related to flying, though, I also tried to remain engaged and keep my brain sharp back when I could barely get out of bed. I kept up with news like AvBrief, read the meaningful aviation magazines I could access, and talked regularly with pilot friends to at least get into the left seat vicariously. While that was immensely dissatisfying, it was all I could do and it was better than nothing. Bottom line is that I’m on a well-planned trajectory to be flying by the end of September. Yeah, I shoulda handled all this before going under the knife.