That must be nice ...

You always know 24 hours in advance when you'll be sick.

You have no issues sharing your private medical information with your SCP designee.

You trust your SCP designee to do the right thing.


I'm a little less perfect.

I don't always know when I'll be sick that soon in advance. When you're driving to work 4-5-ish hours prior to show, I'm probably sleeping. (And I'm not going to tell your ACP you're not resting. ) If I wake up with a sore throat, I may be inside the parameters that would trigger a sick call inquiry.

I rarely know when I'll be injured.

I doubt I'll know in advance when other non-illness and non-injury conditions will occur which despite not meeting the PFC.com announcement's definition of "Sick eligible" events would nevertheless render me unfit to fly according to the FAA's IMSAFE personal checklist.

Finally, I've been burned by ACP "judgment" before, and don't depend on it in the future. I've also had positive interactions, but I don't ever count on them, and I certainly wouldn't bet a paycheck on them.

In my first year at FedEx (which predated a CBA and probation), my new-hire classmate sim partner and I both had 6CH trips on New Year's Eve. His was operate one leg out, one leg back, arrive in Memphis (my home) in the afternoon. Mine was one leg out to an east coast airport near his home, then deadhead back to Memphis. By swapping trips, we could both be at our respective homes almost a half day earlier. My trip was CIC M/U -- first time I did that, and last time. VIPS rejected our swap request because his was a different trip code. VIPS rejected mutual PDO bump. We couldn't DROP and then pick up each other's trips because it was one of "those" holidays. We called scheduling -- they couldn't help. So we called the ACP. His answer was, "If scheduling won't do it, there's nothing I can do about it." We thought about swapping IDs and flying each other's trips, but wound up biting the bullet and both of us got home later than we could have. Thank you ACP, your helpfulness has been repaid with decades of our goodwill.

I also take a dim view of sharing my medical condition with strangers, much less with submitting my medical condition for judgment by people who have no medical training. Sure, it seems harmless and common sensical to tell the boss you felt a cold coming on. Will you feel as comfortable next time explaining that funny rash in your groin?

I imagine The Company would prefer we all open up and use the third option for satisfying the Section 14.A.6. inquiry -- just talk to the SCP designee. It would relieve the need for anybody to provide sick notes, and it would relieve the need to involve The Company's aeromedical adviser. Just tell your ACP, and trust him to reach the same conclusion about your status that you, the pilot actually involved, the pilot actually tasked by the FAA to make the judgment, using your best judgment, made at the time. Just trust them.

Yeah, right.


Let's consider a hypothetical situation and how the "new paradigm" varies from the way sick use has occurred in the past. Let's consider a pilot who lives in base and is preparing to leave the house for the 30-minute drive to work. Suddenly, the calmness is pierced by a blood-curdling scream from his young child. He and his wife run to the sound and find their young daughter covered in blood from an accident of some sort, but they still don't know what exactly happened. What he DOES know is there's an ER visit in the near future, and probably stitches.

In the past, the pilot would not hesitate to scoop up the daughter, perform first aid to stop the bleeding, and head to the ER with his wife and daughter. Before arriving at the ER, he'll have a chance to make the VIPS entry "calling in" SICK, or maybe he'll call crew scheduling to have them do it. He might even explain to the crew scheduler what's going on with his young child being injured.

Under the new paradigm, the pilot will remember that he can only justify SICK calls with a personal injury or illness. He may recall his oldest son starts college at State University soon, and the first tuition payment is due next month. He really can't afford to lose the pay for the 6-day trip he's about to start, so he decides to "compartmentalize." He helps his wife and daughter in the car, takes a few minutes to wipe the blood splatter off his white shirt, and heads to work. He's on the phone with his wife all the way to the parking lot, by which time she has "checked in" at the ER. He rides the crew bus to his own check in, and then heads to the computer to check the flight plan. A text message here, another there, and before long he's on the crew bus headed to the airplane. More text messages, Mom has them checked in at the ER and they're waiting. And waiting. And daughter's nauseous now. The pilot isn't distracted in the least while doing the exterior inspection, because he can "compartmentalize." He'll probably catch any discrepancies. He probably will do OK during his cockpit setup, too, because we're "real men," and the text message from his wife explaining how frustrated she is that they're still in the waiting room won't bother him at all. When he transposes a couple of numbers on the Take-Off data, at least there will be another set of eyes to catch it. His phone vibrates during take-off roll, indicating a new text message from Mom. At least he'll wait until passing through FL180 before reading that his daughter has finally been seen, and it looks like a broken bone, too. It should lead to an interesting conversation at cruise altitude.

The pilot isn't physically ill, nor is he injured, so he didn't qualify for SICK time usage. And yet, according to the FAA's IMSAFE personal checklist, he's NOT fit to be flying.

Why would you trust an SCP designee who pushes the pilot make such a choice?







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