jsled

http://mailafriend.guide.real.com/in...3007_blakey.rm

Go to question and answer period at 34 min into press conference. Some comments from Blakely:

optimistically 18-24 months to implement rule
no waivers
transition period after rule is in place
no retroactivity
no extra medical requirements

Andy

I thought that she danced around that one quite a bit. Watch it again and see if you don't think that she's leaving a BIG door open to changing the medical requirements.

capt_zman

Andy,

Be careful what you wish for. Enhanced medicals will flow on down to everybody. If they wish to relax the requirements, so be it. I have to last until 65 now, and that's going to be pretty hard to do drinking the way I do. BTW, I'm sick of flying with pu$$y captains.

Andy

Not what I wish for; just stating that Blakey left the door wide open for medical changes.

I'd be bummed if they went with the Japanese BMI standard of 27. I'm a weightlifter with a BMI of 30.3. I could spend some time on the treadmill and cut out the liquid pork chops (a pork chop in every 12oz bottle) to get down to 27, but my bulking days would be over. I prefer to be a big boy, packing a few extra pounds of fat, than look like that semi-anorexic guy from 'abs of steel.' I also have some thickening of the left ventricular wall of my heart; common among weightlifters; it's given me a few problems on EKGs in the past.
I'm not pushing for changes; I would probably have to give up lifting if they change the medical requirements. That would be a sad day for me.

GearUp

Is that thickening likely to ever cause problems? What does it do to the EKG?

Andy

Probably not, but it's a symptom of high blood pressure, which is where it creates problems with an EKG. The EKG shows the thicker walls of the heart.
In the case of weightlifters, it's caused by your blood pressure increasing as you lift heavy weights. After warmups, I tend to do 6-8 reps of as heavy a weight as I can handle causing my BP to shoot through the roof during reps. This is especially true for me on leg day. Before my ACL reconstruction last year, I would do 5 sets of 6-8 reps with more than 700lbs on the sled - and that was after doing a similar number of sets/reps of squats @350+ lbs. I can almost feel my BP increasing when I do those exercises.
If you do sets of 12+ reps, you probably aren't cranking up your BP nearly as much as doing heavy sets.

tone

Where did you get this Japanese thing? Please tell me you haven't heard this as a rumor, cause so far every bad rumor I've heard has come to fruition, and I'm not a small guy.

Andy

No, no worries, I didn't hear it as a rumor.
It was just an example of how the rest of the world's medical standards are more stringent than the US. There are only a few countries currently requiring a BMI; I know Japan has it, and I think that Australia and New Zealand also have max BMIs.

Just be aware that with an age change, everything's on the table. Blakey used the word 'harmonization' with ICAO several times during her speech/Q&A.

jungle

I have to wonder how far this "harmonization" with ICAO will go.

Does this mean we have to start carrying man purses, sit at outdoor cafes telling big lies over small cups of coffee, pay $6 a gallon to fuel our overpriced castrated cars, bankrupt the economy to fund social engineering and emmigrate to other countries to find jobs? Does it mean our government is moving to Brussels? Will air conditioning go away? Will I be able to get ice in my drink?
Will we now have to rely on the EU for world defense needs?

__________________
Just another slave on the Marxist plantation.

Jetjok

I always thought that "harmonization" was done out to 2000' (for those that know.)