Dangerously Heavy -

[Torey15]

This post is not meant to degrade or make fun of people in any way. Anybody out there in cyberspace who gets their britches in a wad over the PCness of this can sue me -

I recently saw a dangerously obese (had to be 350-375 pounds) pilot flying for one of the premier frax operators come into an FBO in a major metropolitan area. When I say dangerous, I mean this guy was big enough that not only his health (heart attack, stroke) would be of major concern, but also his ability to egress from the airplane in an emergency would be in doubt. He wasn't driving anything of the small cabin nature, but still you have to be somwhat of a contortionist to climb into and out of the front office of the ship he was in. I know - I have sat in both seats of one.

This guy may be agile enough to do everything he needs to and perfectly healthy. I hope he is. My only thoughts were about his overall health, his mobility in an emergency, and if someone had to assist him out of the aircraft, it would have looked to be impossible.

Flame away guys, I am sure you will.....

 

[Lrjet55]

Thats a fair commentary. I see the same thing everyday when I airline and there is a 6 month pregnant pilot on UNITED, the same overweight 767 captain at Delta and, my personal favorite, the just shy of 70 flight attendant on USair express commuter I was recently on. This lady could not close the boarding door by herself because it was too heavy. Plus she was wearing bedroom slippers...

Its everywhere. How these people pass a medical or company training is beyond me. Its not a fractional , airline or corporate thing. Its just aviation.

 

[TX_DFW]

In a time where america is getting more lazy and fatter every year, this will be a problem that won't be cured any time soon. People are too busy to excerise and eat a proper diet. So we live off of fast food and don't excerise. Lets hope people in our profession care about their health and do not give in to obesity.

 

[Flywrite]

I used to fly Jetstreams for a regional that had a few pilots who had trouble getting in and out through the cabin door, let alone the DV window we were supposed to crawl out of when things went pear-shaped.

As for the 70-year old FA...she is a sweet lady, and it sure is heart-warming to read her story of reaching her dream at her age, but I have to agree. All the sweet stories in the world don't mean squat when things start going downhill. Not to mention the fact that in today's environment the airlines should be recruiting former Marines as FAs, not septugenerians, no matter how sweet they are.

You're not PC on this, but you're right.

 

[WileE]

Begs the question

Why aren't there better standards to who is allowed to issue a medical? Everyone seems to know that there are some docs that you want to go to and some that you don't. I've had everything from not much more than turn your head and cough up to a full blood work up and the sound proof room with the little tones in your headset. Strangely enough both gave me the exact same Class 1 sheet of paper. Which do you think most pilots will go to?

I don't want to have to go through the third degree every six months, but I have seen several people flying in the left seat on a major airliner that you have to wonder if they will be able to wake up the next morning, much less physically evacuate an aircraft in an emergency.

 

[Lrjet55]

I most certainly was not trying to offend anyone. If we are discussing the same FA she was extermely sweet but her ability to perform her job safely was in question. As is the over weight pilot. Its sad really, thankfully it is the exception rather than the norm.

 

[bartpearl]

I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about, and I wondered the same thing myself.

He was hired back when NJA was growing at light speed and the pool of resume's was small. Just goes to show you guys that NJA is not the aviation nirvana some may think it is.

 

[Lrjet55]

On the lighter side, how'd the guy get so big? We dont make nearly enough money to eat that much...

 

[FracPilot]

On the lighter side, how'd the guy get so big? We dont make nearly enough money to eat that much...

Maybe he ate the FOs on those longer flights. I just can't understand when people are that grossly overweight. It's not that difficult. Don't eat if you're not hungry. Don't eat just because you're bored. When you are full, quit eating. Get in some excercise now and then, and you're golden. I find time to lift weights and run 30-40 miles per week while on the road. I can hit twice that if I spend a significant amount of time in MX.

 

[Northern Lights]

Americans in general are over weight. When I have been in Europe, I have noticed that in general, the people are not over weight like they are here.

What probably helps is that they tend to walk a lot instead of driving door to door, and they don't eat the sugars and fats like we do here.

Last night I lugged several 40 pound bags of water softener salt down to the basement (one at a time). I kept thinking that if I weighed another 40 pounds that is what I would be lugging around all the time! It was motivation to stay trim.

 

[LJDRVR]

I flew a trip acouple of weeks ago with a nice FO, who happened to be a skinny guy. He and his wife recently took a trip to Israel, Everyone they came into contact with was convinced he was from Canada or Australia or England. When he would insist he was an American, most Israeli's refused to believe him because he wasn't fat. Pretty sad.

As I look around at the populace lately, it's become really obvious: Americans are a bunch of pod-people. I for one, don't want my tax dollars to support the health costs of a gazillion fat-a$$ baby boomers who have type 2, and heart disease after spending a lifetime shoving immense portions of un-healthy food into their maws, all washed down with obscene amounts of soft drinks. The average American eats 157 pound of refined sugar a year, yet yet "Joe six-pack" thinks that his weight could be controlled better if he just cut back on a little bit of fat. That pehaps, is the biggest food lie ever, perpetuated by an 8 billion dollar a year low/no fat food industry, and a well meaning but misinformed consumers. Heck, they're teaching it to our children; "Don't eat too much fat." as the words leave their lips, the vending industry has bought off our school boards, and the halls of schools are lined with time-bomb dispensing soda machines. Enough of my ranting. Sugar and over-indulgence are the root cause of this nation's obesity.

I think professional pilots as a whole are more disciplined than their "civilian" counterparts, but I too have noticed that some of our brothers and sisters are becoming a bit "ahem".....stout. Really does just about eliminate the chances of getting the quick-don on if they ever had an explosive decompression.

 

[Lrjet55]

Jumping off onto a tangent...

It infuriates me that there are currently law suits tying up our court system because civil liberties union and the "grossly overweight" members of society are suing the fast food industry for allowing them to become grossly overweight.

Its a sad state of affairs...

 

[Fly BI]

A few months ago I helped one of our Japenese female students dispatch her flight. This act of kindness prompted her to ask if I was European. I replied that I was American. She said "you no American, you too skinny, not fat like rest of Americans". While I took it as a complement, I reflected on our fat society and it's many supporters. Folks, we need to take PC and throw it out the window. Call a spade a spade. Fat people need to hear how nasty and repulsive thier condition is. Maybe if we start offending them, they'll get pissed off enough to change their lifestyle. While a small precentage of fatbodies are actively trying to change for the better, I believe the majority seem to think it's perfectly OK to disgrace the human body. Bottom line is laziness.

FAT PEOPLE LISTEN UP, TURN OFF THE T.V., PUT THE QUARTER PUNDER DOWN AND TAKE A WALK! AFTER YOU WORK UP A THIRST DON'T REACH FOR A DIET COKE!

Flame away................

 

[Snakum]

CAJD ... you're my new hero.

Thanks for saying what everyone else in entire phuk'n country under 200 lbs is thinking! I will not, nor will I ever, buy that 'metabolism' or 'thyroid' crap. I have not yet met a fat person who ate like a normal human being, and I'm 40 so I would have met one - I know a lot of fat people. .

That's about as ridiculous as some a$$wipe telling me he has a 'disease' that makes his arm muscles involuntarily pick up a drink of alcohol and get smashed.

Personal responsibility ... nothing more ... mothing less.

Minh
rant = off;

 

[WileE]

HERETIC! HERETIC!

Stone the Heretic!

Don't you know that nothing is every anyone's fault? It's always someone elses fault and every American has the god given right to sue for lots of money because they should never take personal responsibility for their own screw-ups. To think otherwise is blasphemy!

At least that's how the All-Powerful American Bar Association acts. Watch your backside Snakum, you might have a lawyer after you soon with a rock.


(Disclaimer for Aspiring2be: This post is meant to be humorous. I don't need a 200 line lecture on the morals of lawyers, how the American Bar Association promotes the betterment of all Americans or on how irresponsible it is to encourage stoning Snakum.)

 

[Snakum]

Watch your backside Snakum, you might have a lawyer after you soon with a rock.

Been there ... done that.

Minh

"Ahhh hates lawyers!" - Yosemite Sam

 

[LJDRVR]

CAJD,

I agree with you, it's time to take the PC gloves off. I'd like to take it a step further though. Quite frankly, I don't care about the Pod's appearances nor am I disgusted by their eating habbits. What makes me ill though, is how much this is gonna cost our economy and taxpayers. Both in terms of medical care and lost productivity, the amount will boggle the mind in the next twenty years. "My back hurts, but I don't have health insurance for the operation..." So the rest of us will pay for it. That this individual's job situation is such that they don't have the same benifits as I enjoy is lamentable, but I can understand it. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars helping that person out, except that they are morbidly obese, and wouldn't even have the back problems if they had taken care of themselves in the first place. Same thing for heart disease, hypertension, metabolic diseases (particularly type 2 in a sedentary, obese, middle-aged individual.) Not to mention the whole host of other disorders that accompany the ones I've mentioned.

The saddest thing I see is obese kids, whose parents would rather condemn their progeny to a shorter lifetime of suffering and pain, than take a chance on "hurting their feelings" by saying "NO!" to certain types and amounts of food. Bring it to the attention of these adults however, and you'll either get the MYOB response or the "Little Jimmy's got his pa's "fat genes", it ain't his fault." Darn right mom and dad, It's your responsibility.

Again, it all comes back to this: Americans are addicted to refined sugar. Forget my rantings and remember this: Sugar combined with inactivity is the biggest root cause of obesity and disease in this country. The stuff is evil. The smartest thing one could ever do is to stop eating the stuff. "I'm on the: Adkins-zone-weightwatchers" (insert fad diet of the week here.) Whatever. All you have to do is this: First, If it wasn't on the planet 500 years ago, don't eat it! Second, get out and exercise! You don't have to run marathons or lift weights at the gym. Just walk one hour a day.

Now that I'm done ranting, is there anyone else out there who has given up sugar and found it has profoundly changed their life?

 

[FracPilot]

Sugar combined with inactivity is the biggest root cause of obesity and disease in this country. The stuff is evil. The smartest thing one could ever do is to stop eating the stuff. "I'm on the: Adkins-zone-weightwatchers" (insert fad diet of the week here.) Whatever. All you have to do is this: First, If it wasn't on the planet 500 years ago, don't eat it! Second, get out and exercise! You don't have to run marathons or lift weights at the gym. Just walk one hour a day.

I agree with most of what you said, but I think you may be going a bit overboard with the "if it wasn't on the planet 500 years ago, don't eat it" comment. I eat what I want, when I want. If I want a big hunk of meat, I eat it. If I want a banana split, I eat it. I stop eating when I'm full, and I excercise. That's all it takes. Eat in moderation and excercise. You don't have to give up sugar alltogether - just don't take it in in massive quantities. Even though I eat whatever I want, I have normal blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol levels.

 

[LJDRVR]

Yeah, I probably sound a bit extreme, but cutting out sugar all together is still a good idea. When I say 500 years ago, what I mean is all refined sugar and any processed carbohydrates, such as white rice , potatoes or hybrid vegatables. (Corn is nasty stuff) Human physiology was simply not designed to eat the types of food we ingest at the begining of the 21st century. For eons, our body didn't have to contend with what have become the biggest part of today's American diet (White bread, white flour, white rice, white potatoes, hybrid grains and the aforementioned soft drink.)
I believe most of today's disease is directly attributable to the fact that we no longer feed our body the way it is designed to be fueled. (Why with modern medical advances and vaccinations has there not been a large increase in lifespan, just a small one?)

While responsible portions and exercise are commendable, (You're doing much better than your average fellow citizen.) You still needlessly load up your pancreas with extra work everytime you indulge in something like a bananna split. Your blood chemistry would be even better if you gave the stuff up completely, not to mention you'd feel the difference.

I've gotta stop, I sound like the food police here, and I'm not one of those. (If you and I flew together, you'd never hear any of this from me.)

For what It's worth I eat steak every day. mmmmm....steak.

 

[12FLIEGER]

All the qualifications a person needs for a 1st class medical is the ability to see, hear, speak and have no history of or current disqualifying condition. None of the medical conditions on the medical form apply to obesity or lack of strength. So if a crewmember can meet all of the medical requirements for a medical they cannot be denied because of weight or strength. But, if an AME were to deny an applicant of a medical because of doubts about their ability to perform the duties required of them. The applicant has several processes of appeal available to them. The point I’m getting at is it’s nearly impossible, under the current system, to deny someone a medical if they do not have a one of the predetermined medical conditions. With that said. Aviation is in large measure is an honor system. Everything from filling out your logbook to the truthfulness of your health is based on the integrity and honesty of that person. So when a 300+ pilot climbs out of the cockpit of an airplane you question their honesty. As does the public that sees it. Which draws the integrity of us all into question in their eyes. I’m not trying to preach to anyone. It just, to put it lightly, makes me mad when someone makes us all look bad.