SODA
Statement of Demonstrated Ability
Yes, you can get a SODA even without one eye. I lost my right eye (it's
completely gone, I have a prosthetic) in 1990 and have a 2nd class medical
with a SODA for monocular vision for the 2nd class medical.

Why the Delay in Medicals
I talked to AOPA this morning after verifying that my AME had sent all of my paperwork on to FAA. AOPA maintains a weekly interchange with FAA Aeromedical to keep abreast of the situation.
The causes of current delays, according to the specialist I talked to, date back to Oct. 1999 when the FAA first began requiring AMEs to send in medicals via the Internet. While this will eventually make filing medicals a much faster experience, its beginnings involve training of FAA personnel and working out software bugs. The former involved sending half of the available couple-dozen people who handle deferred medicals to training, and then the other half, resulting in about 4 months where they were only half-staffed.

The software problems have apparently been worked out at this point, but have also caused some delays, due to which the backlog has increased. They are also apparently having some staffing issues due to an early retirement package that was made available last year.

So, what does this mean to us in deferment hell? It means that if your medical application was deferred this week, as mine was, you can expect to wait a minimum of 10 weeks before being contacted by the FAA. Until that time it will do no good to call, since your information will not have even begun to be processed. Further, you can expect a 4 to 6 month delay before getting fully certified, longer if you must complete a SODA. They are simply too backlogged and understaffed.

That is the way it is now according to the AOPA, but that is most definitely not what I heard from my AME, who is probably not up to date on the latest info. So, go get that medical early, it looks like it will be a long time before they achieve anything that could be called timely service. Meanwhile, this will give us lots of time to write letters to our congressfolk before election-time.
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Aeromedical
303-341-4435


Migraine
A short blurb from AviationMedicine.com is:
Migraine headache medication: Individual cases vary greatly. However, after evaluation and FAA review, the agency will permit use of certain prophylactic migraine headache medications. These medications to prevent migraines, beta blockers and calcium channel blockers are primarily used for heart conditions and high blood pressure, but may also be effective in vascular (migraine type) headaches. FAA approval requires documentation that the medication is successful in preventing the occurrence of headaches.

Injectable medications (Imitrex and Zomig) and oral agents used to abort a migraine headache (Imitrex, Zomig and caffergot) once it has occurred are not generally allowed for flight duty use. Pilots who have success in eliminating a migraine with these medications may be allowed to carry them in flight for emergency use only in flight, but will not be approved for using them as a primary means of controlling the headaches. Use of these medications automatically grounds a pilot for a minimum of 72 hours following the last dose and resolution of the migraine.

It is possible to obtain a medical certificate if you are not taking any disqualifying medications, the migraines respond to treatment, and they don't occur frequently. The new migraine medications such as Imitrex and Zomig are acceptable to the FAA as long as there are no adverse side effects.

Internet Discussion
James, without knowing how many cases get forwarded to them every year, how can you determine that they are understaffed? Perhaps they are simply horribly inefficient. I had a medical issue that had to go through them and on one call similar to Gene's they told me it was still in review. When I called back five minutes later to tell them that wasn't sufficient information and to get cantankerous they told me that they had been incorrect and that the medical had been issued and was in the mail.

To me, that sounds like a poor information-flow model rather than necessarily being a staffing issue. In any case, before you could make any claims of knowing what the problem is you'd have to have some hard numbers that build the picture of how much work with which the group is faced.

Regardless, I agree with Gene: They could build some tremendous goodwill in the pilot community if there were better response time. At the very least, an easier way to get more in-depth information about where one stands in the review process would be valuable.
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Joan, The same way that you, without knowing how many cases get forwarded to them every year or having ever even taken a look in their offices, can assume they have "poor information-flow" I suppose. Except, I have a little deductive reasoning on my side.First off, how many pilots do you personally know (not including here in the NG)? I personally know a hundred or so. Now, how many do you know that have had their medicals "kicked upstairs"? I know of at least a dozen, with a half-dozen SODA's, not just referrals.I don't recall the estimate of ACTIVE pilots, that is those that need medicals every so often, but I'm sure it's well over 100,000. Of the pilot's I know, about 15% needed the medicals looked at again. Let's say I'm atypical, a fact my wife won't dispute, and cut that in half to 7%. That makes about 7,000. Let's cut that in half again and call it 3,500. That means they get in 13 or more cases per day.

In my case, they called or wrote at least 5 doctors (that's how many medical information releases I had to approve), the local FSDO, etc. etc. Now you may argue with my numbers, but I bet that's pretty conservative on my part. Add to that the required paper beauracracy of the FAA and no matter how you slice it, that's one heck of a paper blizzard . For four people to handle, at least initially.

Does that mean they can't stand procedural improvement? Of course not, I have yet to be in an office that couldn't be run better, especially a government office. But does that mean they're adequately staffed? No. It does, IMHO, point to understaffing. IME, the agencies that actually produce and are required to produce results for the citizens have been, and are continuing to be, cut and understaffed, while those that provide little if any useful purpose are going merrily along. Case in point, how many top-level positions have been eliminated in YOUR area, as opposed to clerical and people with jobs just like the ones we're talking about? I agree that response time improvement WOULD produce goodwill in the pilot community. Hell, all of us agree on that. But maybe, just maybe, the people doing the actual work are overwhelmed. Looking at the deduced numbers, and having never set foot in the door at aeromedical in OKC, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the PEOPLE that work there. Besides, where's the harm in being polite, friendly, and cooperative?

The commodity that is at stake when pilots and the FAA Aeromedical Certification Division come into contact is time. A bureauacracy has unlimited life and time is always there as tomorrow. The pilot is time limited. He sees a time when he will be unable to fly. I cry as I write this for my time started too late and I know it will end sooner than later. That the government I served in war and peace as a soldier and educator should needlessly deprive me of a goodly portion of that time, hurts to the quick. There has to be another way.

The purpose of the Aeromedical Certification Division must be directed to let as many fly as possible as soon as possible. Certificates should be granted and deferrals should only come in the most extreme cases. Has anyone ever considered that letting two medically at risk pilots fly together as a means of substantually reducing the probability of a health related accident?

I see my 85+ year old friend parking daily under the wing of an airplane that was once his. He reads the paper while listening to the arrival and departure of aircraft. He would and could fly but has lost his five year effort to keep his medical. He is living only a half life now. I question that our country is better for its treatment of him. I see myself soon having his half life as well. There must be a better way for our government and our servants to serve us.

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; and those who can't do either, administrate. I said this often about my school administrators. I have been advised that in a government bureauacracy the best way to get rid of an incompetent is to promote him into a position where he is does less harm.

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