Calling in Sick for a Loft/Sim?
 

Calling in Sick for a Loft/Sim?

I am currently on probation as a FO for a certain Atlanta-based regional airline and commute from the other side of the country. I have been sick for about a week with the worst flu I have ever had in my life. During the past week, I have had to call in sick for a 2 day recurrent sim event. I am now almost recovered except for the fact that the sickness has caused my left Eustachian tube to become blocked.

From my doctor's opinion and a general sense of knowledge found through searching the forums and the rest of the internet, it seems to me that the process to unblock is something that can take "many weeks".

The Problem:

The biggest concern I have is that I have to have my sim event done by the end of the month, since it was supposed to happen last month and am now in the 1 month grace period. Although I cannot fly, I could technically do the sim now, but I cant travel back to the domicile via airplane which is pretty much the only way to go.

Do you think that I would be demanded to get back to the domicile for a rescheduled sim event, or would management understand my situation as a commuter?

What can be done if the one month grace period for a 6 month sim event is missed?
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Talk to your Chief Pilot have your Doctor Document your illness, DONT I repeat DONT ever FLY or TAKE a CHECK RIDE unless you are Mentally and Physically READY

Agreed. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row when you speak with them. Get a doctor's note and everything should be ok.

I made the mistake a couple months ago of continuing a trip with a headcold. It wasn't too bad until the three legs with a deferred pressurization controller...

If you're sick, you're sick.

Talk to ALPA Aeromedical and they'll take good care of you. TRUST ME on that.

Look into the Family Medical Leave Act.

See your doctor, and do the FMLA paperwork asap (I assume you have reached the one year mark since you're late grace). I have a buddy who works for a certain ATL based regional and he does FMLA all the time.

You don't want to keep calling in sick for multiple trips.

Once you do FMLA, then you are covered for however long it takes and it only counts as one "event"...so no matter how many trips you miss it's only one event. Also if your company has occurrences, I think FMLA cannot count as even one occurence.

Also call your union.

If you go outside your grace month for a PC, you simply cannot fly 121 until you complete the PC. I think that if you go over a year without flying or doing sim, then you might have to repeat all or part of your aircraft training.

Don't split hairs about where you live vs. your domicile...if you're sick, don't come to work, period. You don't have to debate with management whether you're too sick to fly, but well enough to do sim. You're sick...do FMLA and stay home.

Plain and simply correct.

The sim is certified by the FAA to be considered an airplane. You wouldn't fly the line while sick, so don't do it in the sim. If you were to fly and your performance suffered causing you to fail, telling the Chief Pilot you failed because you were sick won't wash. He will simply say that you shouldn't have flown.

I was in a similar situation for the month of December. I missed a 3-day trip in the middle of the month due to a head cold. I then proceeded to come down with a terrible stomach virus at the end of the month, which happened to be the same time I was scheduled for RFT and RLOFT the next day. I decided to try to make it through the RFT with little success. I called in sick for my RLOFT as well as my 2-day that followed. Called in sick a total of 3 times during December, and haven't heard a thing. By the way, I work for the same airline as you and I am on the same aircraft. Everybody in the training department is very understanding, and will back you no matter what if the issue starts to arise.
Also, talk to Gita about it. She is very understanding when it comes down to being sick during training. Hope this helps you out!