Return to work
 

Looking for some of your experiences when returning to work after being out on medical leave greater than 6 months. I'm trying to figure out what to expect once I get cleared from the FAA. How long does the process take to get back to the line after initially submitting your medical? Any road blocks with the company?

Thanks

Traditionally it took about 24 hours to be back on full status after submitting your medical. Then whenever scheduler could get you whatever sims you needed. Most fleet seem to have plenty of availability, so it would be wise to expect sims within days of submitting.

First, WELCOME BACK!

Done it 2x. It's surprisingly quick. In essence, they have to pay you from the day you submit your medical (aka RTW, "Return to Work), so they want you back flying ASAP.

Once you submit your medical to the company, the Director of Medical Services turns it around within a day or two at most. That's just a double check that all the i's are dotted and t's crossed. Crew Resources will call you within another day or two to ask you what category you want to return to. Officially, any AE award that happened while you were out for which you were eligible (i.e., no seat lock), you can just 'pick'. In practice, you can pick anything you can hold. No that you haven't thought about it, but chose wisely. (also, they returned me with a seat lock, either...) They will probably get you into training within a few extra weeks at most. I heard one story of a RTW to sims that was well under a week. That said, one of my 2x, I returned to the 765 (767-400), and the training planner called with training and said, "it's your lucky day, I can't get you in for 7 weeks!" So I got 7 weeks off at full pay (ALV, I think).

Feel free to PM. It's been 4ish years, but glad to offer any help.

Good to know. Might not be in a hurry to submit my paperwork when I get it.

Good information. I'll be staying in my current seat. I was a new upgrade just before going out on leave, two months after completing OE. Wonder if they'll have me go through OE again or if I can request to fly with an LCA?

I'm almost certain you will still do some OE. There is guidance in the FOM 20.6.4 for that, but i'm not certain where a requal CA falls. FOM 20.12.4 will tell you if you can do a Special Reqal, or if you will do a Normal Requal. (12 months is the cutoff).

Thanks for the references.

Also, it totally sucks, but your vacaiton will be reduced on a pro-rated share. And if you have less than 7 full days to bid in a given week (secondary/tertiary/quaternary), you don't get the seprate vacation week, it will be tagged onto your 'previous' week as a super long 'week'... You also don't get sick bank time until you finish OE and get the OK...

In my case Dr Faulkner denied my return to work. This created a big headache as Harvey Watt removed me from disability. It took a letter from the FAA to get Dr Faulkner to approve the return. My experience was in the middle of covid so communication with the company was difficult. I was shunted to voicemails for people who took the covid early out or simply never replied. If approved by Delta medical it's relatively straight forward. There are two documents to reference. The pilot disability handbook and pilot disability guide. I think they can both be downloaded from the company website but one may have come from DALPA.

I wonder how often our own Dr denies return to work? I would hope that our AME and FAA approval/support would satisfy any concerns our Dr has.