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.

Delta Dr. cant deny an FAA granted medical. That is by law. If they ever do it will be an expesive denial.

But they do. I wasn't even out on LTD, combination of sick and FAA Leave for about 4 months, and Dr. F didn't "agree" with the treatment plan (none) or restrictions (none) even though my SI was signed by the Federal Air Surgeon.

Had to get ALPA, CPO and my Congresswoman involved to RTW.

But then again, my medical got revoked by tip from an "anonymous caller" with info only someone with access to my insurance records, or my MD / Pharmacist would have.

I had just won a legal fight against the company related to benefits, totally not the company weaponizing medical.

Long story short, I'm on an off label at the time medication that while still off label, is now on the AASI form as an allowed / AME can issue treatment. That had been properly reported but HR had said "any off label drugs are unsafe" in a meeting when they were denying my wife a medication she needed post brain surgery to control her blood sugar but she's not "technically" diabetic, so they denied and in the appeal meeting, which fell under HIPPA , I said, funny, Im on an off label drug, that Delta pays for, that the FAA who is very conservative approved. (Had an SI for 5+ years for it)

Two weeks later, certified letter from OKC, emergency suspension of medical certificates.

I can assure you Delta certainly thinks they can and will block your return to work. They blocked mine for 8 months after I had my medical back.

Odd. Doc F worked my SI and my RTW and I had no issues whatsoever. Curiuos you guys had issue with him.

No idea. I've never seen nor spoken to him. Only sent a new medical, my SI letter, and they rejected based on that. AMAS later sent more stuff. But none was relevant to my suspension.

I had zero treatment changes, no labs, no nothing after the suspended medical. Apparently the "reject due to anonymous tip" department doesn't talk to airman certification who was like "wtf we've known you take X instead of Y for years and it works"

Well CX, you are after all our resident human cyborg, so nothwithstanding (I'm joking here) I'm pretty sure you're a one off from the vast majority of us non-cyberdine engineered humanoids and they are not quite certain how to handle you :)

Funny thing, no mention from Doc F about my prosthetics. (FAA made me prove I can fly WITHOUT my "prosthetic" but makes me carry a spare. No logic there. )

The even funnier thing is our insurance doesn't consider it a prosthetic, the Navy, VA and FAA do. "Partial foot prosthetic" aka an orthotic on steroids. They seriously look like like just slightly beefy orthotics. I have at last count, 15 or so pairs between the house, GA flight bag, work bags, motocross bags etc.

Not only did I have issues he later denied he had ever disapproved my return to work. Fortunately I saved all the emails and could show them to flight ops.

There's a reason Delta severed the relationship with F

The 24 hour return to work had stretched as long as two months.

I have not heard any delays since Delta brought it in house

Everything he said is accurate. It's quick. I submitted my medical on a Thursday, I was sitting in the sim the following Tuesday. Oh, and with 142 CBTs to do over the weekend. Never caught any grief about not getting those done on time, lol.

There is a checklist to follow on DeltaNet: Flight Ops -> Admin -> Pilot Leaves -> Return to Work Checklist. Some things on there didn't happen automatically as they say they will or are a pain, such as the EFB. I had to get a loaner for two weeks, as they would only ship the thing to my house but I was already in ATL doing sims.

This is also true. You'll get penalized for two years after coming back for the audacity of losing your medical. Also, if you call out sick on OE, you won't get paid for it. Ask me how I know...

I'm working on some resolutions to get these POS's fixed in the next contract.

Do you or anyone else recall how long it took to get your special issuance from the time your paperwork was submitted to the FAA?

Just under 3 months and mine was an already approved one, that had to help reissued because of an "anonymous tip about my medications" and it had to be re done.

I just got mine back at the 3.5 month point. Of note, AMAS is currently saying that they are seeing 9+ month delays...

Just as a note, there is a widget specific FB page about disability and sick leave, with plenty of people contributing their experiences - search for Widget Pilot Disability/sick. Also, I think the company had a recent forum about pilot disability on Skyhub. Just search of the flt ops news for "disability"

In my experience, they get you back on payroll very quickly - depending on sim availability it can be very quick to get back to the line, so only get your medical and paperwork ready when you're really ready.

Mine was faster than expected. AMAS and my AME told me it would take four months before the FAA even looked at it, then possibly several months more of back and forth.

It showed up completely unannounced with no follow-up required and no restrictions a little over three months after applying. So...yeah. Don't apply until you're fully ready to come back.

Submitted my return to work 1/8, had authorization from Dr. Van that day. E-mail from Pilot Assist the next morning. And then...nothing. Not a peep from anyone. So we shall see - I just assume with the winter storm and the AE and monthly bid process over the last week I got shuffled down in the priority queue but who knows.

Make sure you are getting paid properly.

Most definitely.

Side note but it’s very common to have an overpayment notice in the transition back online. LTD and DPMA both suffer the same issue of the company turning you back “on” and a slight delay for Harvey Watt and DPMA to get notified and turn off payments. No party really at fault, it’s just a few days for all the switches to get flipped across multiple providers.

So if you think your disability and DPMA should have been “less” after being back on normal payroll, don’t spend it. It’ll take a little while and a notice will appear.

Mine was three months. Depending on the malady, it could require a board review, which tend to occur on three month intervals. Or it could go before an individual FAA Flight Surgeon. Once you have jumped through all the "hoops" to build a viable file, the clock will seem to tick very slowly from then on. As others have said, warp speed will come once your medical is in Delta's hands. I was reinstated on payroll within three days. In my case, training (IQ) took long enough that I had plenty of time to make up a backlog of 20 dozen QCQ courses and all the systems distance learning, but your experience could be much more rapid. Either way, pay and benefits kick in pronto. Best of luck navigating the final push to getting back in a Delta pilot seat. Welcome back!

If you are on disability over 6 months, you can bid into any position your seniority can hold.

.02

They want to get you back to work ASAP. I took 4 months of baby leave and they got me in a sim within a week of my return to work date.

Minor caveat that any seat lock you had that during the leave would still apply and prevent a category switch, assuming CR pays attention during your return to work.

And remember that this is 6 months on "UNPAID STATUS". The first several months, while you're burning through your sick/vacation, you are still on "PAID STATUS".

While on paid status, you are still able to bid for your monthly 'sick schedule' and bid on AEs. Once you go on unpaid status, your ability to bid disappears and that is when the 'bid whatever your seniority would hold' comes into play.