Choosing a career in aviation or medicine

A

atomic20v

New Member
I figured this would be a good place to ask this question.

I'm 23, nearly 24, and currently am an electrical engineer. I have a PPL that I completed last year and have been considering getting the rest of my ratings and a CFI to build time on the weekends while keeping my job. I've also been considering going to medical school for the past few years. I'm finishing all the classes I need at night and will take the MCAT in a few months.

I love flying and would love to make a career out of it, but I have some problems with my eyesight. Specifically, I have amblyopia in my right eye. I had a full eye exam done and an opthamologist completed a FAA [SIZE=-1]8500-7 form "report of eye evaluation." I can dig this up and post the detailed results of each test if this would help, but in general my condition is:

Left eye: 20/35 uncorrected myopic, corrected to 20/20
Right eye: 20/60 uncorrected hyperopic, corrected to 20/40
I was also found to have astigmatism. I don't wear glasses because they don't really work considering that one eye is myopic and the other is hyperopic (because my amblyopia is antimetropic (the worst kind)).

My biggest practical problem flying is being able to easily see the gauges, and I think this is something that could be corrected with LASIK on my myopic left eye (the stronger eye). On paper, my stereoscopic vision and fusion tests leave much to be desired.

Now, I guess this has kind of become a multi-part question.

1. Do I have a chance of getting a first-class medical? What would I need to do to get one? Would I be taking a big risk to pursue a flying career even if I got it (is there a good chance I would eventually lose the medical due to poor/deteriorating eyesight)?
2. Is military totally out of the question? (I have a B.S. degree in engineering) It seems like getting your flight training in the military is the best way to go if you can do it.
3. What would be the best/most economically reasonable way to get an airline job where I am now with a PPL? Keep training on the side at my FBO and get a commerical ticket CFI to build time and plan on making a career change in 5 years or so? Or do I need to enroll full-time in a flight school?
4. If I can't get beyond a third class medical, is there anyway I can keep flying? I can't really afford to fly for fun on an engineer's salary (or medical resident's, should I go that route). CFI worth doing?
5. Considering an equal interest in aviation and medicine - what do you think would be the most satisfying path to go down? I've met many doctors and pilots and each seems to be kind of disgruntled. In reality, if I could do anything I would fly, but then again, I don't know what professional aviation is like -- just what flying for fun is like in a C152. I've got the grades to go to medical school (and I've become really interested in opthalmology for obvious reasons), and that's what my family is encouraging me to do, but the time and cost commitments are daunting. Any advice for a confused 20-something trying to figure out what road to take in life?
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Let me approach each question independently.
1) Yes, you can get a Class 1. You will have to request a Special Issuance or SODA for the decreased vision in one eye but they allow pilots to fly with one eye. They will probably give you a SODA for monocular vision.
2) As a pilot Yes.
3) The FBO route is the least expensive way. Speed is not the issue here.
4) You can get a Class 1 medical.
5) The issues in medicine are that the road is long (4 years of medical school and then 4-5 years of residency without a sub-specialty fellowship). For ophthalmology, only the top 1% of medical school graduates get into the programs (and remember, there are a lot of smart people in medical school). The other issue is that when you are finished, you enter a profession that is not the second most regulated in the country (second only to banking) with politically correct state medical boards who look at your every action and scrutinize it. The chances of being sued for malpractice (even if you don't commit malpractice) are at the least once every 10 years. The debt load of most medical school graduates is more than $250,000 now and rising every year. I love medicine but convinced my daughter to go to law school instead.
 
Thanks for your reply. In regards to getting the class1 medical, where do I need to start? Do I have to go to my AME and schedule an exam (which I will fail), then he submits a waiver request, or can I just bypass the hassle of having to schedule a physical that I know I will fail and request a waiver/SODA directly? All I know right now about medicals is what I did to get my 3rd class - show up and pass. I don't know where to begin in regards to getting a SODA. Also, do airlines hire pilots who have SODAs for monocular vision? I've heard of people with class 1 medicals that can't get jobs because of a waiver they have (even though they technically have a class 1).

That's rough to hear that only 1% of doctors get to be ophthalmologists. What happens to the rest? Do they just become G.P.s? I was under the impression that if you wanted to be a specialist, you could, but maybe not in the specialty you wanted immediately, you would just have to chose another one. Is that not true (i.e., if you don't match to the specialty you want, then you have to become a generalist)?

Interestingly, I was going to go to law school back when I finished college. I was sitting on an acceptance to a top10 school and turned it down after every lawyer I talked to me told me the horror stories of big law firms and how law school was the worst mistake of their lives. Guess any of these career paths aren't without some risks and serious financial commitments.
 
Get a Class 1 medical and have a Form 8500-7 from an eye specialist to give to the AME to submit with the medical. The FAA will do the rest.

Almost everyone becomes a specialist -- it may be a speciualty in ophthalmology, surgery, family medicine, cardiology, OB or many others. There are basically no GP's any more in docs under the age of 50.
 
My Flight Surgeon said:
Get a Class 1 medical and have a Form 8500-7 from an eye specialist to give to the AME to submit with the medical. The FAA will do the rest.

Almost everyone becomes a specialist -- it may be a speciualty in ophthalmology, surgery, family medicine, cardiology, OB or many others. There are basically no GP's any more in docs under the age of 50.
Click to expand...

How recent does the 8500-7 have to be? Mine is from Nov. '06.

I guess I was saying G.P. to mean the same thing as family medicine. What is the difference -- is a G.P. just somebody who never did a residency? Say for example you want to go into opthalmology, but don't match into any residencies - what do you do then - an I.M. residency or are those just as competitive? I guess my fear would be not matching into what I wanted after medical school and having to be an generalist when I really wanted to be a specialist -- I would think that would make for a pretty unhappy career.

Thanks for your help.
 
The 8500-7 should be in the last 90 days.

A GP is one who never took a residency.

Generalists are Family Physicians and Internist who practice a broad scope of medicine - this is actually much harder than being a "specialist".

If you do not match into an ophtho program, you can do a 1 year "transitional program", sort of like the old internship but just in internal medicine.
 
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