All things considered. This summer is going pretty well. London is warm and sunny. Friends and family are well and in good spirits. The skateboard ramp we built in Peru in December 2009 got a 6 page write-up in Concrete Wave skateboard magazine (available in all good newsagents/skate shops). I’m also really enjoying my flying lessons but a potential problem has come to light.
To obtain your Private Pilot’s License you have to have flown at least 45 hours (a proportion of which are solo), pass a number of theory and practical exams and pass a CAA medical examination. The flying lessons with EFG Flying School, at Biggin Hill, had been going well so before committing the next chunk of money I decided to get my CAA medical examination completed. I didn’t want to pay for a lot more lessons and then find out I couldn’t fly solo for medical reasons. I’m fairly fit and healthy so I didn’t think it would be a problem.
Unfortunately I may have been too honest when I completed the pre-medical questionnaire. Within the multitude of ‘yes/no’ questions about my family medical history, previous operations, etc. they threw one in about head injury or concussion. Not thinking much about the consequences I mentioned my motorbike accident in Belize last year, due to the head trauma I received. Those that read the blog may remember that the accident was in the middle of nowhere and although I was seen by some extremely well qualified doctors they weren’t Belizian and there are no medical notes, scans, x-rays, nada… It was only as I was relaying snippets of this information to the doctor during my medical and I could see his face dropping further with every new detail that I wished I’d just answered ‘no’ in the first place. To cut a long story short, he’s going to have to refer my case to the CAA and ask them for advice. So what should have been a formality (I am otherwise fit and healthy) might turn into a show-stopper or potentially costly round of brain scans. Seems that nothing is ever easy…
It wasn’t a totally fruitless visit though. In what was a rather surreal moment during the medical I discovered some interesting facts about my old school house-master. Bear with me on this. Part of the medical involved an ECG scan, where the doctor stuck 8 electrode-pads to my body (4 of which were on my chest). The hairiness of my chest meant that before he could stick the pads, the doctor had to cut away some of the hair to make 4 bald patches. He must have thought, as hairdressers do, that cutting hair is a good time for small talk so he asked where I went to school. Turns out he went to school with, and was best mates with, my old house-master (15 years before he was my house-master). I also now have an inkling why my house-master was so good about all my misbehaviour at school. Seems that he was quite a tearaway in his time. Who would have guessed it?!
I’m hoping we can get this ‘previous head trauma’ thing sorted, especially as I had already started building the website for planning this adventure and have sunk a fair bit into flying text books, lessons and the medical test. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.
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