Originally Posted by
AirBear
Yea, you do NOT want to fly after a major medical procedure. In 2004 I had a malignant melanoma on top of my head. Luckily it hadn't metastasized. Was cut out in a minor outpatient procedure. Lab said I was good, no more cancer. This happened a month after my Medical. So I went back to flying not thinking anything about it.
Next medical my AME's nurse said I should call AMAS about how to document the cancer. The Doc there called me back and said I had been flying illegally
Any cancer is grounding until the FAA looks at everything. I had to stop flying even thou I was healthy, get a bunch of paperwork done, and after about 2 months I got cleared to fly and also got a nastygram from the FAA about following regs in the future.
So they do get a tad sensitive about that stuff.
Well, glad to hear that your cancer was so easily removed, that had to be a relief... Yes, I am sure the FAA was less than pleased, but again, how would one know that having had a malignant tumor would be grounding? Maybe that is common knowledge or just plain logical, I don't know... as the answer to my question probably is.
I will say again though,
I had no plans of flying. It was just a question to satisfy a curiosity as far as the validity of my medical. (Anyways, my company is aware of what happened; at least my base chief pilot is so, I'm sure he, or somebody at the company, would have questioned any attempt to get back in the cockpit without a new medical, etc...) And to be clear, the question was not can I go fly after open-heart surgery, it was, is my medical still valid....?