I encountered some problems with the annual medical this year round. The casa medical officers were complete as****es, however there were a few who were extremely helpful and if it wasnt for them I would still be grounded.
Having a few minor health concerns this year and having to have a stress echocardigram on the heart did not help even though it said there is no concern. I prefer to tell CASA everything that they ask for nothing less and nothing more that way I can't get into shit for falsifying the medical.
Anyway, DAME said nothing wrong you all good, rung casa to see how the medicals going, sorry but it has been rejected!! What the!
I have held a medical for 18+ years both class 1 & 2 and never had a problem, so I said oh it must be the stress echocardiogram so I rung the DAME to see what he thinks and he said there is no way that would prevent me from holding a medical neither would any of the other stuff so I was stumped.
Called CASA and disputed it, I said what is the problem? They said back in 1996 yes 1996!!! There was an issue with your medical history, that was my very first medical, I go so after 20 years of holding a medical your going to block me even though CASA has had the information on the database for the whole of the past 20 years?
I raised an official complaint and they called for a doctors panel to go over my case and after 3 days they approved the medical, This caused a lot of stress.
Be warned people, during this entire process I was informed that casa has access to medicare and the ndis database, so if you fail to disclose something they can easily find out. They even new I had grommets in my ears when I was born !!!
Once again if it was not for those few casa avmed staff members who worked there butts off to resolve this I would still be grounded.
I was a strong supporter of CASA but this is starting to change my opinions and making me reconsider flying, going back to my avionics career is high on the cards.