The gag order is lifted. For ten months Ted answered "what have you been flying lately?" with a cheerful bunch of nothing, because he had quietly bet everything, sport pilot privileges included, on getting his FAA medical. If you apply and get denied, there is no crawling back to sport. He applied anyway. This week the curse-word-laden victory text went out: Ted has his medical, he is legal PIC again, and by his own math he'll have "probably 12 ratings in the next 60 days."
Same week, same show: Ben formally accepted a charter job flying SIC in a Phenom 300. ("It didn't say Chrysler 300. It said Phenom, right?") He says he feels like the dog that's been chasing the school bus and finally caught it, and the chat has already decided his Piston Peasant shirt must be surrendered for a Turbine Tyrant model.
Ted then opens the books on how the medical actually got won: five months of preparation before submitting anything, more records than his AME could upload (they faxed the rest), a cash MRI, a concierge neurologist one block off Rodeo Drive with an F1 replica car out front, a congressional inquiry, and a personally logged bill of $21,000. Disclaimer on disclaimer on disclaimer: that was Ted's very specific situation, not a recipe. Talk to AOPA Medical Services, Wingman Med, a HIMS AME, anybody but us.
Also aboard: Mark, officially the fourth host ("the fifth wheel... it's really nice for redundancy"), is off to build airplanes in the Czech Republic, which Brian was reminded has not been called Czechoslovakia for quite some time. Brian pulled the power at 10,500 feet over a very hot Tennessee and glided Lucy all the way home ("the Icarus approach," per the chat). Plus a five-star review titled "New Era of Hangar Talk," sport pilot altitude rules straight from the 700-page MOSAIC reading (61.315: unchanged), and the non-event event on September 19 at McCollum Field (RYY).
Tonight's wisdom, via Mike Alpha Golf: luck favors the prepared.
Mentioned on the show:
Chrysler 300: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_300
Phenom 300: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_Phenom_300
Raven Career Development: https://ravencareers.com/
Ted's video, "first flight after ten months grounded: my faa medical certification story": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCt_6pCuLgo
Ison Law, The Pilot Lawyers: https://thepilotlawyer.com/
AOPA Medical Resources: https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/medical-resources
AOPA MedXpress Simulator: https://wingmanmed.com/medxpress-simulator/
Wingman Med: https://wingmanmed.com/
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia
