class I class III
 

Is it a good idea to party a week before your medical examination? I mean what im trying to say is that do they check ur alcohol level during the examination?


thanks'
-Moe

Alcohol is gone from your system in a matter of hours. You probably wouldn't want to party the NIGHT before your examination.

thank you for the clarification.

when you say hours, i'm thinkin like.. maybe 18-24hrs to be completely removed.... with maybe .00001% left...

i know it doesn't take days, but i also know that it doesn't go away in just a couple hours either... i'd give yourself at least 24hrs to make sure...

There are very accurate alcohol tests that can tell if you were drinking heavily a couple of days ago. I don't know the exact lenght of time. But I've never been tested like that for a class 1. Why should they do that? It's not illegal to drink the night before a flight(it's still 12 hours military, what is it civilian, 10hrs I think?), so why would it be a problem for a physical? I wouldn't show up hungover though. That would be pretty poor SA.

Exams and Drinks
 

I have taken many class 1 physicals, and they do not check for alcohol. Of course, I would play it safe and not go into the exam room three sheets to the wind either.

The FAA medical does not test for alcohol, but if you are hung over that can affect several other things:

- Blood Sugar (this is why you pee in a cup)
- Hearing/Vision may not be optimal
- And the biggy...heart rythym. A few irregularities on your EKG are usually normal, everybody has them daily or hourly. But since the FAA EKG only measures about 6 seconds, if an irregularity shows up they don't know if you are experiencing them daily, hourly, or every six seconds. Because of this uncertainty, you will have to spend thousands of dollars on special tests just to verify your cardiac health. You will not be grounded, but it's still an expensive PITA.

Caffeine is also likely to cause funny EKG results, so I schedule my medical first thing in the AM, skip the coffee, then hit starbucks on my way home. :rolleyes:

Avoid these things:
1) Heavy booze several days prior (maybe one beer the night before)
2) Caffeine the day of
3) Strenuous exercise the day before
4) Massive dietary deviations the day before (don't eat 3 large garbage can pizzas for dinner)
5) Dehydration
6) Vitamins/supplements the day of.

If you are taking an airline employment physical, assume they test for everything, and clean up your act one week before. I don't know how serious they are about supplements, or if their tests can detect them...but they usually ask you about suplements.

so your telling me not to smoke sheesha 2 days before the test lol :(