(January 2010) — My medical’s due next month and I’m mindful of one of the rules of flying: “The medical profession is the natural enemy of the aviation profession.” But we’re lucky to have good choices around here, and I’m actually dithering about which of three to call for an appointment. These are good physicians and guys who love to fly airplanes and who probably won’t tell the FAA about the funny noises in my head.
The obvious choice is Bob Stein, an old friend who I’ve seen since we instructed together at Cincinnati Aircraft back in the ’60s. He’s done a lot of good things for a lot of pilots for some 50 years and is legendary at Delta and Comair. Of course, there were others when I was a fed in the Chicago and Indianapolis FSDOs. I owe a lot to the guy in Chicago who gave me a lung capacity test “off the record.” I was a two-plus-pack-a-day smoker; when I saw the results and realized that I’d probably be hauling an oxygen tank around for the last 10 years of my life, I threw the Parliament 100s and my cool Zippo lighter in his office trash can and went cold turkey. Back home it was by luck that the FAA had contracted with Dr. Stein to do all the physicals for inspectors in the Cincinnati FSDO. Well, except one woman inspector who threw a hissy fit and demanded her own aviation medical examiner, probably because he didn’t make her climb on the scale. OK, OK, I’m trying to retract my claws, but this gal was a “fast track hire” with all the paper qualifications except she couldn’t fly airplanes … didn’t even like to fly airplanes. After (twice) failing a multiengine course at the FAA Academy, the academy simply eliminated the “pass” requirement. Maybe I’m just envious because within 10 years she was managing one of the largest FSDOs in the Southern region while, after 27 years and 11 months, I was doing pretty much the same thing I did the day I began. And that doesn’t make any sense either, because I’m anything but “management material.” Anyway, read on for more about Bob Stein.
