Yes, it has been more than 6 months since I last logged in here. It seems that way when I am not flying. When the flying slows down, the blog suffers.When the flying seems non existent, the blog is a garveyard.
When I first faced my Decrease in Medical Fitness, I felt that my flying career had ended. Unceremoniously. But quite with the air of finality. I saw myself as being in the preludes to retirement. I still had till June to the end of my contract. Yet, seeing that my 6 months of being medically grounded was just about 4 weeks before that end, I saw myself slowly but surely fading from the world of aviation.
My touch and go contact with another pilot who had had a bypass a year and a half ago seemed dismal and not at all forthcoming when I did enquire into his health and recovery. Perhaps his luck was not on his side, and I sympathised with him. It isn't easy being off payroll for about a year and recovering from a bypass isn't child's play. Besides, the time frame for recovery from a bypass is never the 6 months spelled out in the ICAO Document 8984. Nobody facing an uphill climb with one's health and consequently career, would want to repetiively explain the details of one's ailments and poor fortune in finding the way back into employment. I could well understand his choosing to ignore my messages. And so I would feel resigned to reading the pilots' WhatsApp groupchat, inane as it is, and feel mysef on the outer orbit of a rather active circle.
That's how it felt for the first 5 months of my DMF. And then, all too suddenly, it seemed like only two weeks away from the 15th of May, 6 months exacly from the date of my stent placement. I was due for a review of my stress test with my cardiologist and I could feel myself getting tense the way I always do on the brink of something ominous like a check ride.
Betwixt all these, I got in touch with the new Flight Operations Manager who informed me that my contract was extended for another 6 months to December. Further extensions would be subject to me clearing my medical fitness and my check rides. Phew! I had just been granted wiggle room!
But I happenned to have cleared my stress test on the 15th of May. I was surprised. And hopeful. I arranged to see my Aviation Medical Examiner a few days after on the 17th. After taking my blood sample he undertook the task of taking my stress test results to the regulatory body and all I had to do was to wait for my DMF to be lifted.
I seem to have swung around in my perspective towards flying. I want to be back in the cockpit again. Yes, while before this I did feel like my days in the cockpit were over, clearing my stress test has given me some glimmer of hope that perhaps my last day in the cockpit is ahead of me rather than behind me. There is a part of me which wonders if I remember how to do offshore flying, or how to carry out rejected take offs or continued take offs from a single engine failure. Many pilots I have spoken to have told me not to worry about anything, that it will come back to me, so I am going to have to hang my doubts and proceed with an open mind.
That is, if I manage to clear jumping through the hoops ahead of me. I have the aircrew medical and my License Proficiency Check to deal with.
I hope that the current positive trend continues. Then I shall hang up my flying boots in a year.
No comments:
Post a Comment