Hey All,

I have a somewhat unusual ( or maybe not) situation. I've been out of commercial flying for about 9 ms due to a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Second class medical expired just as I was going into treatment so I waited to renew until I was done. Fast forward to today, treatment is done, cancer free, and completed my first class medical exam last week. All things being equal, would have been issued on the spot, but It was of course deferred pending FAA review of the cancer treatment documentation. I fully expect it will be approved but the variable being timing of the FAA getting around to the review and issuing the medical.

Just prior to diagnosis I had started with a new 135 operator but due to the extent of treatment required, was let go fairly quickly. I would likely be able to jump right back in with them once my medical is issued however, after surviving cancer I've been reevaluating some things and, long story short, I'm not sure that's still what I want to be doing.

So I was planning on applying to some LCC(s) and probably a couple main line carriers as well, and the question I have is whether I should wait until my medical is officially approved and issued, or if I could maybe send out the apps now, and put in my applications somewhere that I've applied for the 1st class and it's deferred pending FAA review? The hope being that with class dates being fairly far out for most carriers in a lot of cases, that I would more than likely have the approval before an actual class date came up, and maybe I could shorten the amount of time I'd have to wait verses waiting till I actually have the medical in hand to apply in the first place.

So what do you guys think, possible to get an interview with a deferred 1st class medical application considering it's a fairly cut and dry deferral with positive outcome from treatment, or suck it up and wait until i actually have it issued and in hand?

TIA,
Dash