Tailwind62

I was issued a 2nd class medical that has since lapsed. After being diagnosed with a disqualifying medical condition, I stopped all training and have not exercised the privileges of my license since getting the bad news (I left the college I was training at).

Since I stopped exercising the privileges of my certificates and have since let my medical expire, I did not report my condition to the FAA. Now I want to get back to flying, but I will need to get a new medical. I expect it to be a long ordeal that will hopefully end up in a special issuance.

My question is: Will I get in trouble for not reporting a condition even if I wasn't exercising the cert?

I certainly don't want to end up in jail for something like this. I did not have the condition diagnosed when the 2nd class was originally issued, so I didn't mislead the FAA in order to obtain the 2nd class. I fully intend to disclose the diagnosis when I go back in to renew the medical, and I am prepared to navigate the special issuance process if needed.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

rickair7777

Relax, you have nothing to worry about. There is NO requirement whatsoever that you report medical conditions to the FAA unless you are renewing an FAA medical.

Caveat to that: If you learn you have a disqualifying condition, you are supposed to ground yourself, which you did. You're fine.

There is some grey area here...

Black & White: If you have a disqualifying condition which obviously fully resolves itself, you can generally unground yourself when you're fit to fly, no AME visit or consult required (practically speaking). Example here is a bad cold or the flu. If you didn't get any professional health care for the condition, you don't even have to report it on your next medical. AME won't care anyway.

Black and White: You get diagnosed with something serious and complicated like cancer or cardio-vascular disease. Even if you got treated and told you're cured, the FAA is going to want to hear about this before you go fly regardless.

Grey: Bad broken bone. Healed up but residual range of motion limits. Something like this could go either way. They might expect you to talk to an AME before you unground yourself, or they might be OK with you making a self-assessment that you're good to fly.

For a professional pilot, if there's any doubt at all about grey area, talk to the AME first just to CYA.

Tailwind62

Thanks Rick,

This is pretty reassuring and I appreciate the time you took to reply. Condition was mental illness. Need to get that cleared by the doc, I assume to just say I am stable and no longer medicated. I was also diagnosed with OSA due to enlarged tonsils, once I get the followup sleep study, I hope they say that that has gone away (so I dont need to navigate that issue too when I go back in).

If I want to consult with someone about these and how it relates to my medical, would I be able to do that with an AME, or is that all on the record? I have also looked into going to the Mayo Clinic's Aerospace Medicine Center to go over things, but I am not sure if that is overkill.

CaptYoda

I would look at the disqualifying conditions that you had and then the FAA protocol on how to report and resolve it. If you find that you are not able to do the process yourself, consider the services of AOPA Medical, AMAS, Leftseat.com or Dr. Bruce as have been listed here. They are all very good. Expect it to take time and you have to do everything the FAA requires if you stand any chance at all. The biggest issue the FAA says is folks don't provide whats asked for and in the correct format. Other than AOPA, you can expect to spend few thousand dollars for consults and tests. If you get a special issuance, it may take 6-12 months minimum. And there will be an ongoing protocol on a yearly basis.

rickair7777

What Yoda said. Both mental illness and OSA are show-stoppers which will require some paperwork and likely additional evaluations. You need to get professional advice BEFORE you talk to an AME/FAA.

Hopefully the mental health issue was garden-variety anxiety/depression. History of other mental health conditions is likely to be difficult to get by the FAA.

Tailwind62

Yep - ready to try to tackle it. I hope that once I get reevaluated by the head doc they will say I am good. I have already been off the medication. For OSA, some other threads have talked about getting SI even with a CPAP. If it turns out I actually do need one, I hope it wont be too big of a deal to work through it.

If I should discuss this with someone before seeing an AME, who would be the best person to see that is knowledgeable about FAA medical issues and DQ conditions?

For this portion Are you talking about more severe conditions such as Bipolar or psychosis, etc?

rickair7777

Perhaps AOPA, more likely an aviation medical consultant like CaptYoda mentioned. Need help from someone who knows what the FAA will require, and how to document it.

Yes.

Tailwind62

Appreciate your help. I decided to give the Mayo Clinic's Aerospace Medicine department a call today. They have been great so far and have been open about the process going forward. I doubt insurance will cover any of it, but maybe if I word it carefully they will pick some cost up.

In the meantime, I'm having a free phone consult to see what my options are.

They mentioned a HIMS evaluation so I'm not sure of that process, but they gave me a website to look over. Fingers crossed.

rickair7777

If the mental health issue is addiction/substance abuse, there's a pretty clear road-map to FAA certification for that. Perhaps lengthy, but shouldn't be too much uncertainty as to a positive outcome if you're clean and your docs agree. Just stay clean.

Tailwind62

Not substance (drugs/alcohol) related. The guy on the phone said that the Feds want people who have been on SSRI medication to go through HIMS as well. Although he seemed pretty positive about the recent medication allowances on a SI (despite being grounded until you are stable on a dose for 6mo). Again - hope this won't be too big of an issue since, imo, I don't need to go back on the meds.

I'm hopeful but trying to stay realistic. Fingers crossed.