Pilots flying on drugs

The question you should be asking is what is better-- pilots getting treatment for mental illness and flying, or ignoring it altogether and flying anyway, with no treatment whatsoever?

Because those are the real options.

 

The part you don't understand is that many pilots simply don't get treatment, and keep flying with symptoms. They don't get treatment at all because of that policy.

 

I think it helps some people, and not others. That said, no, most of those people who are affected are quite good at hiding symptoms, and coworkers are pretty good at helping out their teammate.

I live in the real world, not the world I want it to be. And in the real world, I know many pilots who don't get treatment (for a variety of things, but especially mental health issues) because of concerns about their medical certificates.

 

Having gotten my 3rd class medical last year, I can now understand why the current system is just awful. Took me like 15 months. The FAA doesn't answer the phone. Mail takes forever, and you have no idea who if anybody has looked at what you sent. Sometimes if you call just after 9am on Tuesday, someone will answer the phone,...maybe 25% of weeks. The rest of the day and week, forget it.

I'm lucky in that for my purposes Basicmed will probably be good enough, going forward.

For a 2nd or 1st class medical, I can understand why people omit info and just plain lie. I think the risk for lying is less than the risk of getting a failure or deferral on the medical.

 

I know a guy who went to Federal Prison for lying on his medical application, so it can happen. It probably wouldn't have happened to him aside from the fact he was an FAA Inspector, and they are particularly hard on their own.