A few months back I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I have been grounded since and am doing treatment for another few months. Prognosis is good, thankfully. Of course, I hope to return to life as normal when all this is done. I have been flying 135 for awhile and am hoping to move to a charter or airline in a year or so. Question is how to explain this in an interview. I can imagine a scan of my logbook will bring the question of "why didn't you fly for 8 months while empoyed?" My answer: ?. Seems like disclosing a this kind of medical condition would be a deal breaker. Would it suffice to say "had to take a personal LOA" and shut my mouth. Love to hear any thoughts people might have. Thanks in advance....

 

Glad to here things are looking good.

Some thoughts...

If you say you took a personal LOA they may ask why...and then you have to be evasive, lie, or tell them you had an illness.

In some cases I imagine once you disclose an illness they will shut up and move on to something else. Of course they may draw their own conclusions about your future medical suitability. Generally interviewers cannot legally ask about medical details

Some airlines will simply take your FAA medical at face value (most regionals and SWA for example). Others do their own medical, with standards equal to or better than FAA (notably AA). If they are going to give you a medical exam you will have to disclose it to their doc anyway, but the interviewers are not privy to those details.

You might be better off just coming clean up front and saying that you had a medical issue but it is resolved and you expect no further trouble. If you start off being evasive they may suspect that you have something significant to hide.

You could conceivably tell them you had a sick family member that you had to care for (true, in a sense) but they might ask for details, out of sympathy if nothing else. But if they find out what happened somehow, probably from your previous employer, that would be bad.

I'm generally all about being honest, but when it comes to medical stuff I believe that should be between you, your doc, and the FAA. I would have no moral qualms about lying to an employer about medical issues...it's none of their business as long you have an FAA 1C. Just be sure you can't get caught.

 

You might not need to disclose. If you are still considered employed, and return to work, there is no reason to mention it.

Legally the interviewers can't ask, but they still might, or come to questions about your low flying rate during a period of time, or another way where disclosing might easily explain the problem. Be ready to discuss cancer head-on, in simple-to-understand terms, along with recurrence rates (far lower than chances of freeway accidents). Show perseverance instead of sob story. It takes perseverance to get to a part 135 operator and through training, it takes far more to beat cancer. You've probably learned something about your goals from the experience as well, thus you are focused, determined, and you don't let a bad time get you down.

Your interviewer might have gone through a similar battle which means instant rapport.

Cancer is not the Scarlet "C" it once was.

 

Thanks for the insight folks. Thoughtful and very helpful. Gonna stick, if asked, with the straight up answer and let them decide for themselves what to do with it. Got a ways to go till I cross that bridge but still helps.

 

Better to be upfront rather than evasive and let them "guess" what happened. Put yourself on their side of the table. Hmmmm, this guy did not fly for 8 months, must have been <insert worst case here>.

Continued well wishes medically and aviationally.