Since the last digest was almost entirely bitterly OT I figured I'd
chime in with an OT post that, except for being OT, should not cause
people to get their dander up.
Most of you will recall that my son was a helicopter pilot for the New
York State Police. Since his near fatal helicopter crash during a drug
raid in September 1999 (search the archives for "helicopter") he has not
been able to regain his FAA license. He used to suffer from room
spinning vertigo. Years of treatment have reduced that to an episode or
two per day lasting no more than a couple of seconds but that is not
good enough for the FAA. You need to be 100 percent symptom free for a
minimum of one year. Without an FAA license he could not resume flying
for the New York State Police.
The good news is that, apart from these minor vertigo issues, time and
surgery have returned him to apparent normalcy. Even the ear-to-ear
head scars are contained within his hair line and not easily visible.
For awhile he was reassigned to road patrol until his neuro surgeons
found out. MRI brain scans do show that he has some small abnormal
areas. The neuro guys were afraid that a roadside scuffle and another
whack on the head could be exceedingly dangerous. Since the NYS Police
have no notion of a "light duty" office assignment they were ultimately
obliged to place him on disabiltiy retirement.
He has recently found new employment with the TSA as the director of
training for TSA screeners for the Rochester, Binghamton and Elmira, New
York airports. Since his salary is approximately what he was making as
a pilot with the NYS Police it means that the state doesn't actually
have to pay him any of the 3/4 salary retirement disability payments.
Despite the FAA situation he was able to resume flying helicopters last
fall for the Army National Guard. Had to spend a lot of time in a
simulator first since he'd been out of the pilot's seat so long. Since
the army always flies with two pilots and is not governed by the FAA the
army doesn't care about the little bouts of residual vertigo.
You are now free to return to other OT topics.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
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