The Flight Surgeon Is Not Your Friend

[potrack]

The two differences between Military Flight Docs and Civilian ones are:

1. The Military doc, if they find a problem, will take the opinion: "You're grounded until proven healthy"

2. The civilian company, since they paid for you need you on the line getting revenue, so they will bend over backward to get you cleared or pursue waivers for you....do all they can to keep you flying. Union medical folks help with that too.

....pilot I know is grounded in Navy but still flies commercial..............

go figure.

also...............Military flight docs are usually young, inexperienced or just not that good.

 

[46Driver]

Watz... one of the biggest things that gets guys at NAMI in OCS is the fact that... you go for your physical at 6am, on the first morning. You're groggy and delerious. I about had to get into a yelling match with the HM2 and Commander that said my eyes suck, when in fact I had a 1st class FAA medical and know that I've got perfect vision. So my advice to you is this (and do it!)... about 2 weeks prior to OCS get yourself in the routine of going to bed at 2200 SHARP and waking up at 0430... NO NAPS DURING THE DAY. Sleep deprivation is the biggest moral killer at OCS and the hardest thing to get used to. If you can have your body on the cycle already.. the rest is just a pain in the ass.

One thing I can add to this is what the docs briefed us on "Circadian Rhythms" concerning sleep cycles. If you are going to nap, no more than 30 minutes - or - make it at least 2 hours. If you stay within 30 minutes, your body gets light sleep - once you go to an hour, your body goes into deep sleep (I think they call it REM sleep.). That's the reason if you wake up 1 hour after you have fallen asleep you feel very groggy. By two hours you have cycled back up to the same plateau as you were at 30 minutes. Hope this helps.