Back in the Air. Sorta.

Over the past two years I have been absent from flying and to be honest about it, I really have a lot of sad days when I see CAVU. 

Living on final approach to KCGF’s runway 6 does not help matters much.  Listening to the tower on my aviation radio makes me long for just an hour here and there detached from the ground.

Yesterday, a friend from my home base, 16G invited me for a ride in the 150 and I eagerly accepted.  Due to the ever changing weather in Cleveland, I was checking it constantly for 72 hours before the flight.  In Cleveland, if you don’t like the weather just wait, it will change before the next hour.

The flight was bumpy and it was hazy, but it was still great.  We flew to 38D for pie and coffee and back again to get the plane to the next renter. 

So why have I been out of the air for so long?  Two words.  Family First.

A few years ago my step father passed away, and eventually I moved in to take care of mom.  Also, my income was cut off and due to taking care of her I can not work except for a few hours out of the house.  So, pretty much I am tied to the ground and I hope that this year brings me better results.

Yesterday reminded me of the many things that I have been missing over the past few years and have come to the conclusion that something has to change, and soon.

FAA Medical Exam Coming Up

Here we go. The dreaded FAA medical exam.

Mine situationi is different than most pilots. We before I can take my exam I have to turn in preliminary paperwork to the FAA to get permission to take my medical with the local AME.

Two days from now I meet with my kidney transplant physician. With him, my main concern is my blood pressure and kidney functions. All of my kidney functions number have been pretty much on target which leads my next concern, my blood pressure.

Currently I'm taking a medication called Amlodipine, and so far the results have been fairly stable. Once a week I regularly check my blood pressure levels. Once a month I may not take my blood pressure meds for two to three days and then check the level. I have a history of being pre-hypertensive, which means I am in the caution range for hypertension but below the danger level.

To keep the FAA happy I need to be below 140/90. Currently without medications for three days my blood pressure level averages 129/81.

I pretty much believe that my blood pressure levels have been decreasing due to the fact that I exercise at the gym three to four times a week. My exercise regiment include weightlifting and cardio. My cardio exercise primarily is 45 minutes on the elliptical machine.

With pretty much everything being within guidelines I should receive a decent letter from my kidney physician.

In two weeks I meet my liver physician, and pretty much everything should be the same with him. Five days ago I met with him for my annual colonoscopy. (Yes, mine is annual due to the medications that I take for my transplant.)

After I receive my letters from my liver and kidney physicians, and maybe one other letter from another physician explaining my osteoporosis (common for transplant recipients), which is very minor, I send in that package to the FAA and request my authorization to take my medical exam with my local AME.

So far with the FAA and everything has been pretty smooth, contrary to what many of the pilots have gone through. Maybe they just like me?:)

Two of My Airports Are Closed

On my 'Airports I Want to Fly Into' list on the left, two of them are close.

Cornelia Fort is where I took my first flying lesson when I was 14. I wanted to make M88 my first long cross country once I was licensed.

Seven Spring is also closed. When I was flying at Chagrin Falls (closed), that was our $25 hamburger location. Yes, $25 hamburger, not $100 hamburger. It was that long ago.

Sad that locations like these are devastated due to flood and the economy.

In my mind, both places had significance so they can not even be replaced with other airports. I guess you have to fly to get it, huh?

WOW!! Lookie Here!

Got another piece of mail on Saturday and WTF??

My kidney physician and I notified that FAA that I swapped from Clonidine to their approved blood pressure medication. I was told by several of those in the know that I'd have to take the new medication and advise the FAA after 30 days of the current BP levels.

We notified them 1 week after taking the new med that I had been swapped and then would send them the current levels after 30 days.

Well, ... I opened my mail on Saturday, about 7 days before sending the new numbers and WTF?? There was my medical. WOW

Gotta love the FAA. So far, knock on wood, I have had very few problems with them.

So, I am cleared to fly. On the other side, this all comes 45-60 days earlier than planned and I have yet to get into my new insurance business and still lacking commissions, thus, no flying money. Oh well, time to make some insurance calls, huh?

Still Waiting Medical Review from the FAA

Talked to the FAA last Friday and according to them, my medical is under review, still, up for decision shortly. Every year I have to send info from my liver and kidney transplant doctors to get permission to take my annual medical exam. They had my file since May 25th and today is July 23rd. So, remember, the FAA is backed up with files for review. If you need it, do it 3 months ahead of schedule.

August is around the corner and soon, fall flying will be here.

I hope that this new job with the insurance company will allow me to have a lot of flying dough and a chance to finish this goal.

Delays and Frustrations

This is really making me uneasy.

1) I am waiting for my authorization from the FAA to take my medical exam. Every year I have to send letters from my physicians to Oklahoma for them to review and then give me 'permission' to take my exam. This year was delayed due to my newly diagnosed Ulcerated Colitis and my liver transplant physician could not complete his report. I know it is just an issue of time, but I hate the wait.

2) Job. In January I left my part-time to go to a mortgage company and that company was a farce. I lost 3 months of income and could not save for flying. I was also given a chance to move to an insurance company for a great opportunity. I studied and passed the insurance test with flying colors. Now, I find that the agency was grossly overselling the position and all of the income that they were making was not true and that they are scrapping the program. Out of pocket money could have been used for other things, including, setting money aside for flying.

I know that this is all for a reason. Just tell me what that reason is.

Another great day. I need to get flying soon!

Alive and Well (an update)

Okay, I have not blogged for a long time. I know that. I have a lot of catching up to do so I might as well get started.

Things have been quite crazy for a long time, and many things are still unsettled, but I am working on them as quickly as I can.

My last posting on October 21 was entitled "Family First" which basically make reference to the fact that my senior parents were both ill and needed my attention. Unfortunately, my stepfather died the day before Thanksgiving, and the sad thing is that he wanted to be my first passenger when I got my private pilot's license. A month prior to his death, my mother had a botched medical procedure which rendered her fully disabled. During this whole process I was unable to do my series of cross countries which would have left me with only a little hood time and night flying to reach my requirements before my private pilot check ride.

Since then I have been keeping as current as possible with flight simulator, and hitting the books as much as possible. Okay, that was not being completely honest. I read here and there just to keep my mind somewhat sharp. Unfortunately, I had to take my written exam again since my last written exam expired at the end of January, 2011. Two of my instructors told me that they would sign me off if I would pass online exams within 80% or better which should be no problem.

It's time for me to renew my medical which also expired seven days ago. I am told that I should have not much of a problem to renew my medical even though I have a new diagnosis of Ulcerated Colitis. I was late in renewing my medical due to scheduling with my liver doctor who wanted to wait until after my colonoscopy to do my annual report to the FAA. I have not experienced any side effects from my new medication, and both of my physicians agree that I had to go through the dreaded colonoscopy once a year. Other than that my transplanted kidney and liver are both functioning quite well.

The only flying that I have done was four weeks ago as a passenger in the Skyhawk on a round robin flight to four different airports from Wadsworth, Ohio to as far as Lake Chautauqua, New York. Of course I ended up buying lunch for all four of us which I did not complain about because I wanted to get up in the air. Of course, it was bumpy and I don’t handle turbulence with an empty stomach.

So that is it in a nutshell. I did not buy any new equipment except for a $29 Timex chronograph which was needed because on my cross-country flights my previous watch was too difficult to manipulate between the stopwatch and the normal time.

Hopefully the repairs on my car would not be too expensive and will not delay me too much from getting back in the air. Also, a new pending job offer will help take care of all of my flying expenses. But then again, my last offer to go back to the mortgage business was a bomb and left me months of lost income. Maybe I can not judge job offers.