Originally Posted by
galaxy flyer
One alternative view of disability payments is that it’s compensation for injuries suffered while in the service of the government. It’s not a medical issue; it’s compensation that, in civil industry, you might settle thru lawsuits or arbitration. I had a spinal compression fracture and a fusion done as the repair. My flight surgeon was also an FAA FS. The FAA had recently added the disability payment question and he recommended never file for disability until my career as a pilot was over and done. I never did, as I never felt “disabled”, but clearly would be eligible now. A friend was badly beaten up in a T-38 ejection (Keith ate aspirin like candy), 30% disability, but still flew.
GF
This is really how it works^^^
But the FAA recently decided that they want to have the opportunity to review any VA (or other) disability to make their own determination as to whether they have an aeromedical impact.
Their implementation has been perfectly reasonable to date from my perspective, when that box appeared and I checked it it was easy to show my AME that all of my VA items were "previously, reported, no change" on my 8500.
That probably put a bunch of folks in a pickle though... if they had VA disability ratings for things that they had never reported to the FAA, and had been doing it for years. Like I said before, this is all trending in only one direction and I seriously doubt this pendulum will ever swing back. Better to confront it pro-actively, rather than wait until caught.