Though my want is different since I want to fly as a career, I couldn't ever be a sport pilot; it (was) either thrust or no flying. If
@pseudoRandom has assessed what a sport pilot does vs 3rd class and has decided he wants in an aircraft that produces thrust for lift rather than just gliding, then he has made his decision.
In any case I'm in the same situation you are but also got a ridiculous (and false) diagnosis of Aspergers (now Autism Spectrum Disorder). What
@murphey said is important, but I'll make a quick checklist that's IMPORTANT you follow for ADHD.
- Receiving your medical when having a previous diagnosis is black and white to the FAA. You either have ADHD and are barred from receiving a medical, or you don't have it (determined by the tests mentioned below) and you are clear to fly. There is no spectrum of "He has ADHD but he's good to fly". Either you have it or you don't.
- With that, be honest with yourself. My total cost has come out to $3,800 so far (3 consultations with my AME and a Cogscreen-AE). Don't throw $3,800 away if you can't assess yourself honestly and say whether you do or don't have ADHD.
- Not to bash nor discredit the AME you mentioned, but he didn't show up on the FAA's HIMS AME list (https://www.faa.gov/pilots/amelocator/media/hims independent medical sponsors.pdf). On top of this, you should pick out a senior AME from this list. AND on top of that, research your AME. I found out my AME has been doing his work for over 30 years (and was a TWA pilot!)
- If you find a reputable AME with a history of working with hard cases, there should be no issues scheduling only a consultation. You should bring ALL your medical records (Mine were 120+ pages) from the department you saw for ADHD checkups and medication issuance/changes (Usually department name is pretty close to Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics). And I would also get that dehydration papers from your medical history too. They don't need to see every time you went in for a cold to your local doctor's office (unless you got severely sick and exposed a new diagnosis).
- DO NOT fill out a MedXPress form. As previously stated, only schedule a consultation and bring your medical records. Your AME will look over your medical records and give you an idea of what you need to do.
- If the AME you are seeing has been this for a while, they will be able to recommend you a good Neuropsychologist to see to administer the cogscreen. The cogscreen is mandatory for ADHD. There is no way you can have your diagnosis reversed without taking the cogscreen.
- IF YOU LIVE on the east coast, tell your AME you would like to see Dr. Gary Kay in Washington D.C., he made the cogscreen program so he knows how to write the best report based off of your scores.
- Once you finish, this report will be forwarded to you and your AME. You will schedule an appointment again with your AME and go in. If he sees that everything is good, he will take you to their computer and have you fill out a MedXPress form, then do a physical and eyesight test. If you pass the physical, he'll mark your medical request as being deferred and off it goes to Oklahoma City.
- Now... cross your fingers. Well if your cogscreen scores were good, you shouldn't really need to worry, you'll most certainly get your medical issued. If you get a letter saying your medical request was approved, congratulations! If not, they will probably be asking for a psychological evaluation since they have concerns about your communication. This is only if your medical records report a history of communication problems and that your communication problems lasted for an extended period of time and never improved.
For the cogscreen, I prepared/assessed myself on whether I should continue by using PEBL 2.1. There are a slew of tests that you take for ADHD. I'll try to list as many of them as possible below and also send you the link to PEBL with the practice tests, though some tests aren't available on PEBL. The cogscreen looks like this (Page 2 and 3):
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.126.4724&rep=rep1&type=pdf
The tests listed below are what I took and the corresponding name in PEBL so you can practice
- PASAT Paced auditorial serial addition test | PEBL pasat: This is hard to explain, so watch this video
- (Backwards) Digit span | PEBL dspan: Numbers appear one at a time and remain on the screen for 1 second each. When the numbers are done appearing, you must type them backward.
- Flagman/Manikin: You will see a man holding a flag. He could be facing towards you or away from you, and upside or right side up. You must determine which hand the flag is in from his perspective.
- Symbol digit coding: Refer to the PDF linked above for a better explanation. Don't forget which symbols are assigned to which number. After about 2-3 tests later, you will be asked to remember which symbol goes with which number again.
- Visual sequence: You will see to strings next to each other. They may be the exact same or different by 1 number or letter. You must respond as quickly and accurately as possible as to whether these strings are the same or different
- Trails: Its like a game of scramble, you have A-Z 1-27 or A-F and 1-12 all scrambled out on the screen. You must tap each letter/number in order (A, B, C, D) (1, 2, 3, 4) or when you get the letters and numbers, tap each number to its corresponding position in the alphabet (1, A, 2, B, 3, C, 4, D, 5, E). After the cogscreen, give me a number and I can give you its corresponding letter via its position! Thanks, cogscreen!
- Centerline triangle: You have a line that looks like a sea-saw and a triangle that moves to the left and right on the top of this seesaw. Pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard makes the triangle move in that direction. Your job is to make the triangle stay as close to the center as possible (refer to the PDF above)
- Centerline: You will see a line moving up and down with red filling at the top and bottom of a circle. The line will move up and down sporadically and tease you when it gets close to the red. Once it touches the red, you click center and it will move the line back to the center (The other parts like the Same/Different and the strings at the top left and right are explained next https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/cogscreen-ae-strategy-question.121786/)
- Along with everything above, you will get dual-task sequences. This means you will get some of the smaller tests (like visual sequence) combined with the centerline tests. You will be required to use your nondominant hand to control the keyboard for the centerline tasks and your dominant hand to use the stylus and tap "same/different" or the other buttons associated with the small tests.
Additional tests that aren't on the cogscreen program
- You must also be required to take the trails test on paper too to test your dexterity. This is actually kinda fun.
- Verbal fluency: You will be asked to name as many words as possible that start with the letter "x" (The letter changes; you are asked 3 separate times with 3 different letters) in 60 seconds. This is kinda hard but a lot of people struggle with this, so don't worry. You will also be asked to read a list of words and must say them to determine your reading level and pronunciation
- MMPI: Man this one's a b***h. 627 question personality tests. I can't describe the questions, they somehow pinpoint your mental stats. Take a look at the first 75 questions here to get an idea of what they look like. You can only answer "yes" or "no" to all of these questions. https://antipolygraph.org/cgi-bin/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1109032158/33#33
This seems daunting at first, and it took me a while to piece all the tests together but practice on PEBL and don't even worry about the MMPI. Try the tests at home first before you make a make a decision of whether you will go out and get your ADHD cleared. If you think you still have ADHD, then stick with a sport license. Once you apply for a medical if you get denied you are barred from getting a sport license.
Please message me privately if you would like to know more.
Pete
