The 1st Class paperwork asked this question and I answered "no", but soon I will be receiving VA disability payments as part of getting out of the military and having a few things that qualify.

What happens when I check "yes"?

Been getting a first class for close to two years now while getting benefits from the VA and it has never been mentioned.

USMCFLYR

Same here...4 years disabled vet w/1st class. I just don't give them my rating.

Under legislation passed this year, the FAA can get your VA records from the VA directly. You don't have to "give" them your VA rating...they can just go get it. I think by answering that question in the affirmative, it is putting a flag on your medical that the FAA can then go check against VA records and decide if they want more information from you or not...I see it as a slippery slope.

I'd like to get the legal definition of "disability pay" - if removing a few hundred dollars before tax and giving it to me "tax free" counts as "pay", I don't see even filing a claim as worth it for $10-20/mo. If I cross the 51% threshold and get a whole other check for disability, I think it opens a can of worms. On one hand, you're >50% disabled and getting concurrent receipt for life altering injuries suffered while in military service and on the other hand, you're holding yourself out to the FAA to be in perfect health and able to be entrusted with the most scrutinized, legislated, controlled, and monitored career field in the history of the world.

And I've got a friend about to retire who completely pulled his VA claim because of this (he's returning to Northwest...nee...Delta)...

Damn, that sux....I didn't know that the FAA could pull your records like that without you knowing. I'm not gonna worry about it. I'll cross that bridge if I ever get there.

WHOA!
I never said this
I hold out to the FAA that I can pass their 1st Class physical which is a LONG WAY from being the specimen of perfect health.

USMCFLYR

I'm sorry; I was being generic in my statement and in no way making any accusations or allegations to anyone at all - just the building scenario I see on the horizon.

This is about perception management. As pilots, we know that passing a 1st Class physical does not mean you are the specimen of perfect health, however, the flying public does not and the FAA bureaucracy may not now, if only to manage their perception.

An airline pilot is the most scrutinized and regulated profession there is or has ever been. No other profession, not the guy sawing open your skull to perform brain surgery, or the ER trauma doc who does on-the-spot surgeries and certainly none of the other high-paying jobs like high-end lawyers, stock brokers, or CEOs of Fortune 500 companies subject themselves to the sort of regulation that an airline pilot does. Nobody walks into the ER, presents his government credentials and advises the surgeon he will be getting evaluated today, on the spot. Nobody from the gov't goes into the Dr's office and demands to see his licenses, training records, or certificates of medical worthiness of any of his equipment. Nobody gives him spot quizzes. Nobody changes the rules a surgeon follows in an ever expanding regulatory nature while pairing him with a new surgical team he's never even met every time he slices someone open...and then gives him a surgical check ride.

But pilots do. All to protect the public's perception that we are somehow superman, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Make no mistake. This is not about health, it's about perception management and bureaucratic creep. Imagine the public hue and cry when the NTSB reveals during their next accident investigation resulting in loss of life by the paying public that the captain was a 30% disabled veteran receiving disability "pay" from his service. How do you think that reads in the newspapers or on CNN? We know that can mean anything from minor hearing loss to bumps and bruises and even old (middle) age creeping up on retirees in their 40s added in a cumulative equation understood only by VA bureaucrats to mean you're going to get 30% of your pay tax free...which is probably only $20-30 for most guys. Yet these are "ailments" that do not affect us in any appreciable way from anyone else in their 40s.

I promise you, that's not what will be on CNN. And the FAA sees a way to grow their bureaucracy under the pretense of saving the flying public from 'unfit' pilots. First, they'll go after the gross offenders...and frauds (which is where this originated), but answering 'yes' to that question on the medical tags your name for VA cross reference.

It's about money. Feeding the bureaucracy. Hiring more people to monitor us evil sneaky pilots...because we are the most controlled, monitored, regulated profession.

Hmm, so what about 70%? Haha. Could very well be that in a few months!

Oh I know T2.
I was making a joke about the difference between the VA disability and the FAA 1st Class.
In my case - my disability did afect my 1st Class in that I needed waivers in the military and SIs from the FAA. Mine is well documented. I've heard stories of others who might have been less than truthful between the two, but there can be reasons for the disability that have nothing to do with something on the medical (a small loss of hearing for example). You might be a 10%er for hearing from the VA, but as long as you have a conversational ability with the AME then it doesn't matter. My AME actually gives me the old standard hearing test that I took in the military!

USMCFLYR

Many folks have collected VA disability while holding a 1C medical. Of course it all depends on the nature and severity of the disability. But don't lie to them...

The FAA sent a bunch of folks to jail only a couple years ago by cross-referencing some federal(?) disability database with the FAA medical database...any matches who did not report their claimed disability condition to the AME went to jail. It was not the VA database though...they probably wouldn't have the political nads to target vets like that.