Originally Posted by TonyC

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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