QX2059 Jumpseater tries to shutdown engines
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BEEF SUPREME
Well-Known Member
I dated a doctor for a while and when I described the FAAs take on mental health she said:
“That’s medieval”
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trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
Instant decision making by actual experts and limitations based on real risk and not just all or nothing "Wait X years just in case, and hire a lawyer."
I'm grounded right now, have been for a little over a month, It's quite obvious to me that I shouldn't be flying right now. Even if I was cured tomorrow, which I wont be, it would be 6 months at least before "they" would even deign to make a decision and that decision may be "wait another six months just to be sure."
I have STD/LTD and the support of a really great union, thankfully, but not everyone has that (and not *all* of this is falls within problems with the FAA...), and if this transitions to a permanent situation it's a real blow to what I thought my life would look like... like uproot everything I've worked for, move soemewhere else, and try to survive type of situation.
It's enough to make anyone depressed.
Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
Agreed.
Going thru a tough time currently with adult younger son (aged 36). Occasionally for some, this goes well beyond the theoretical. In a rehab/facility for about 10 days now, I've only spoken to him once (he has to call and no visiting) but his wife shares pretty freely the things he says to her a couple times each day.
I suspect I'll lose him in this, not as a mass shooter but to OD or suicide, or just drifting off to a place from which he can't return, and it hurts like hell. Professionals schooled in his need and addiction do what they can but he's not especially receptive right now.
Not looking for anything here but to say the Max, and others who share, are a genuine lifeline to sanity and, occasionally, hope.
knot4u
Repeat Offender
Your plight is endemic, everyone one of us has some version of your story and there are very few success stories, but there are success stories. Measure your response carefully, you're willing to help but don't let anyone other than you dictate how. You're an old man and probably wonder "Why am I dealing with this now?, it would've been so much easier a decade ago?". Support your son without harming your well being. It sucks, but it is what it is. You'll get through this, no one said life was going to be easy, they just said "Here's Life, Good Luck!".
Thanks for the empathy... Really.
I think I'd be ok slinging gear for folks I, personally, actually taught to fly. Those folks DO know what they're doing, or at least they used to.
But, I think flying biaaaatch and slinging gear for random folk who rely on baby Jeebus to part the line of class 4s up ahead à la Moses...?? Nope. No, yer never gonna get it.
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Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
Not this time?
JDean3204
Well-Known Member
That's flung so far out of context that even I don't get it. (though, so oft, I'm the one accused of incomprehensibleness 'round these parts)
Still, for all you operating based upon some non-objective, I-meme-just-to-feel-like-I've-won perception of reality, fling away!
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trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
Damn.
The "Aero Medical" is an existential joke. I see two, two-fiddy bowling balls exit jets every day. These guys are 5 minutes from a heart attack. Despite their free-to-them (taxpayer paid) medical coverage, many of the ex-military guys outright LIE on their applications... I mean, you KNOW it's got to be VERY, VERY bad if the FAA actually does something and completes the paperwork to enforce a new rule...
I detest humanity right now. Very few care about anything except their monthly payments vs income, Very few even just pretend. Actually, most care only about their monthly income... and then, go on to spend ALL of it, as well as any excess allowed by their equally STUPID bank, the loan officer at which is likely just another wage slave who cares naught for anything beyond his own pathetic, vacuous, current financial reality.
Most 'Muricans know the price of everything they might be seduced to WANT... and the VALUE of nothing, especially ALL the things they actually NEED.
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trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
Interesting outlook on life.
Most of us are running scared. It doesn’t take much for life to throw you some curve balls.
We never know when we will have an interruption in employment income. On the other side of the ledger, we never know when we will face an increase in unavoidable expenses.
Here are my unplanned expenses for 2023:
- Assisted living expenses for my mother. My sister and I split $60K/year expense.
- My de facto mother in law has care of some of her grandchildren and can’t work. My SO and I cover $2k rent a month.
- My daughter is in college. $2k a month.
That’s $108k a year in relatively unplanned annual expenses. My point is, when you see somebody scrambling to maximize their income, you have no idea what they are facing. Are they fat and greedy or fat and generous, to a fault? You have no effing idea.
I would never put passengers or crew in danger, but don’t ask me to have faith in the FAA.
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Maximilian_Jenius
Super User
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
My hero
///AMG
Well-Known Member
Not related to mental health, but I know a perfect example of the latter. Always picking up extra trips for premium. He paid for his daughter's undergrad, then paid for her MD, bought her a house, and is still paying for all of the above. It's him living up to the promise he made her years ago that if she got into school, he'd fund it. Only kid, with his ex-wife. Of course he is a very senior WB CA at a legacy. Which helps
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
I think we can all agree that mental health is something that’s been long overdue and the FAA needs an acceptable, clear, and easily spelled-out process that allows pilots to maintain their career.
Y’all delusional if you think you haven’t flown with a pilot who is (by definition) depressed. Or suffers from anxiety. They know declaring it means a long term grounding and so many pilots (IMO) don’t get the help or just outright hide it.
Y’all delusional if you think you haven’t flown with a pilot who is (by definition) depressed. Or suffers from anxiety. They know declaring it means a long term grounding and so many pilots (IMO) don’t get the help or just outright hide it.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
If it makes you feel better, I'd submit the FAA is actually light years ahead of the official waiver guidance in USN aviation medicine. Perhaps other services are more "progressive" but I'd be surprised if that were the case. And it is a double whammy, because we don't have such a thing as being med down for a long time on LTD. You spend too much of your sweet time med down and not contributing, and you will fail to promote. And then you get shown the door. Even if it isn't that long, you still may go so far off track that you never get back in a cockpit, even after getting "up" again. I've seen it multiple times, though not necessarily mental health related (I'd guess that self-reporting rate is below single digit percentage).
Toobdrvr
Estrellas Asesino
Not sure if it helps, but I may offer an idea regarding one of those: A few years ago, we were in the position of having to pay my MIL’s rent, possibly forever. Instead, we partnered with my BIL and bought her a house. That way, at the end we’d more likely have something to show for it vs just throwing money out the window…
We were EXTREMELY fortunate (timing, etc), but in the end, it turned out to be a great investment. Not sure if it would work for you, but thought I’d put it out there. Best of luck.
Sorry for the hijack.