NetHeads,
I'd originally intended to ante up and get one more "proper" FAA
physical when it was due in August, mainly because I didn't want to have
to educate my doctor on the process, and because I was thinking it might
turn into a bit of a confrontation, and I'm just a wimp when it comes to
that kind of stuff.
So I made my appointment with the AME, prepared to pay him $150, but
there was a SNAFU when I showed up, and I brought the previous
(two-years ago) medical, rather than the newly printed one, and despite
having the username and password to print it from their office, they
reschduled the appointment for two weeks later and sent me packing.
That ticked me off a bit, and since I was only a few blocks from my
doctor's office, I dropped by and asked if they'd ever heard of the
"BasicMed" process for a pilot's medical exam. As luck would have it,
they HAD, and I was told that if I'd email them the form, they'd get it
signed and back to me the next day. Great!
So that night I read up on the process (see
https://basicmedicalcourse.aopa.org/client/app.html#/auth/logon) , took
the test, filled out the forms (identical to the previous medical forms
for the AME), and emailed it the doctor's office the next day. A few
hours later, I had the signed form in hand, legal to fly, at NO COST at
all! I cancelled the AME appointment, and have been flying ever since.
It that's easy....except I did a little more research and found that the
physical has to have been done AFTER April 31, 2017, and he used my
physical data from my previous physical in October of 2016. Close, but
no cigar! This was not listed anywhere on the form that we had to fill
out. No problem...I'll wait until my next physical and get him to fix
it then.
Then my doctor died suddenly (he was about my age), so no more doctor.
But through some very tenacious hurdle jumping, his nurse practicianer
enlisted another doctor to take over the business, so my physical was
rescheduled for yesterday. Again, I wasn't wild about "breaking in"
another doctor to BasicMed, but showed up with all forms filled out, and
even brought some color-blindness charts just in case he didn't have
those (and he didn't).
So right off, I asked that he save five minutes to go through the
BasicMed thing, and he read it over, said "we'll use this checklist to
do your physical", and proceded to knock it out. Turns out he's
colorblind (he already knew that), and he missed every one he tried!
We had a good laugh over that, but he awarded me credit "by exclusion"
(I rattled through every one and then he kind-of saw them), and it was
done! No extra charge....simply over and done with, and more
importantly, GOOD FOR FOUR MORE YEARS!
The point of this post....don't be afraid of the devil you don't
know....it'll be easier than you think, even if you have to throw the
guy a $50 bill or something. And just in case, take some
color-blindness test plates with you. See
http://www.colour-blindness.com/colour-blindness-tests/ishihara-colour-test-plates/
, and print them out in color, nine to a piece of paper.
--
Mark Langford
m...@n56ml.com
http://www.n56ml.com
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