Originally Posted by
AirBear
Around 2004 the FAA considered any form of cancer grounding until they reviewed the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Don't know if it's still that way.
I had a malignant melanoma on the top of my head that was discovered early just by pure dumb luck. This happened about a month after my FAA Medical exam. Melanoma was cut out and sent in to confirm they got it all, which they had. Simple procedure done by a plastic surgeon. I was there less than an hour. Could have been bad but again I got lucky with the early catch.
Fast forward 5 months and I call to schedule my next medical. Ask how to report this incident and they say to call AMAS, which I did. The Doc there informed me I had been flying illegally
I had to stop flying even though I was perfectly healthy, fill out a bunch of forms, get my Doc to fill out a bunch of forms, then wait months until I got cleared to fly. I also got a nastygram from the FAA about adhering to regs in the future. Common sense has no place in the FAA bureaucracy
Thanks, yes any cancer is still grounding. We use Harvey Watt and they told me exactly that. They
need a final evaluation that addresses your history, interim history, prognosis, medications you are currently on, recommendations, future plans.
There are 2 other pilots currently going through this. Several had it done already. With so many of us the FAA seems to be ok with handing out SIs for it. We will see.