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Any AMEs on here?

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Rhino

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
2,015
Location
KTHA
Do we ever have any AMEs provide input here? Years ago I decided to relegate myself to sport pilot, but that may no longer be necessary. I was taking a medication traditionally used for seizures, but that isn't why I was taking it. I didn't want some overzealous AME to get the wrong idea and permanently bar me from flying in any capacity whatsoever, so I resigned myself to sport pilot. I quit taking that medication at some point, but then I broke my back and spent seven years on a steady diet of painkillers, so sport pilot still seemed best. My pain management specialist implanted a pain pump in February that allowed me to finally stop popping pain pills. I had stopped several times on my own but the pain made me nearly bedridden (hated taking those things). The pain pump slowly infuses tiny amounts of pain medicine directly into the nerve roots coming out of my spinal cord, so the dosage is a tiny fraction of the oral medicine I took, and the side effects are all gone. I never really had sedation from it. In fact it kept me awake, so I couldn't take it at night or I'd never sleep. Made me pretty nauseous sometimes though. But now all that's gone, so I'm starting to wonder if I should consider BasicMed. My old 3rd class medical expired before 2006, so I'd need a new medical. The main question is whether or not a pain pump would be a disqualifier. I don't want to just run down to my local AME, because I'll be eliminated from sport pilot if my medical is denied. So I'm kind of trying to figure out how to have a reasoned discussion with an AME on my chances at a 3rd class without screwing myself out of sport pilot permanently. The downside if things go my way is it'll be more expensive to resume my PPL training rather than sport pilot, and then I'd be horribly tempted to get a plane with a better useful load. More speed would be good too, but it's the load I want more. I'd probably still want to keep the Zenith, so then I'd have to convince the wife that two planes are a good idea. LOL! Nice to have choices, but then those pesky decisions get involved. I could get a Jabiru, so I'd have the same engine in both and not be limited to 100LL. Hmmm. Love, love, love to have a Bearhawk (my original choice), but that would probably cost too much, and use 100LL.
 
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