3rd Class Medical

Check one more item off the list! Last week I made an appointment for my 3rd Class Medical exam, which I passed yesterday. I was a little worried going in but it all went smoothly.

The first thing I was worried about was a minor surgery I had earlier in the year to remove a cyst from my neck. Ed told me he had another student who was denied a medical for a minor surgery, and this was a surprise to me. When I made the appointment I asked whether I needed to bring any documentation about my operation. The doctor advised that while it sounded minor, the best course of action was to bring a statement from my surgeon about the surgery. I only had a few days until the appointment so I called my surgeon's office to find out he was on vacation or something. But they tracked him down and within hours they had faxed me a statement and surgical notes, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. I was duly impressed!

I showed up early to the appointment, which was in a small office atop a Shell gas station here in West Seattle. I never would have known it was there but for the address and the not so obvious sign over the door "Senior FAA Medical Examiner." The waiting room was covered with photos of the doctor and his hobbies: flying, scuba diving, and climbing. And also with signs warning customers that he only works two weeks out of the month, and that he wont be working the first several months of next year. He must be semi-retired.

Anyhow, the first part of the exam was the vision test. I'd spent 30 frantic minutes in the morning looking for the glasses I never wear, because my vision isn't that bad. I think it's 20/30. The Class 3 certificate requires 20/40 or better, corrected or uncorrected. On the off chance that my eyes were worse than 20/40 uncorrected I wanted to have my glasses. But it turns out I didn't need them.

The rest of the physical was pretty routine: listen to this, listen to that, peak in my ears, etc. Oh, and pee in a cup. It turned out that the doctor had lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I lived for a few years so we gabbed about that most of the time.

One interesting part was that because I'd had a medical 17 years ago, this was in fact a renewal. The doctor was able to find my old medical record by using my social security number - which was nice because I didn't then have to estimate the date of my old medical on the form of my new medical. I didn't realize the FAA was so organized with their record keeping.

In any event, I now have a little yellow card with my vitals printed on it. On the back is my student pilot certificate. Now I have to figure out how to carry this thing - folded in my wallet? laminated in my flight bag? Taped inside my log book? We'll see what Ed says...