onwards
Pattern Altitude
Still trying to calm down. I also have a question to folks who understand this - Dr Bruce are you still here? - at the end. I marked it clearly so you can skip the entertainment in between if you'd like to be kind enough to answer and don't care for the rest.
So my medical expired in August and I didn't receive my reissued one even thought I sent all the usual paperwork back in mid-June. This happened last year, too, and I called and they sent it to me within a couple of days, so I figured here we go again.
I call OK, speaking to someone. To make this easy, their stuff is in italics.
"Sir, we sent you a letter requesting additional information on July 8th. Did you receive it?"
"No. What did it say?"
"We can't tell you over the phone. We'll send it again. Can you confirm your address?"
Sure, of course. Hang up.
A few minutes later this whole thing is bothering me too much so I call again. Explain what's going on and beg for more information. The lady says "OK, let me look into it" - she was very nice, as were all of them really.
"Looks like the medical review team needs more information from you"
"I get that, but can you tell me what? I sent the same paperwork I send every year"
"No, we can't discuss it over the phone until you get the letter"
"Can you email it to me? fax it? something that will be faster then sending it by mail?"
"No. We can't. But it does show that you received it"
"Come again?"
"You signed for it"
"No I didn't"
"Well, sir... there is a signature here. Let me look... the name looks like XXXX XXXX"
deep breath.
"Alright, yes, I recognize the name. It's my ex-wife. Looks like she signed for it and never gave it to me. Let me get back to you"
Call ex-wife. She's asleep. Her girlfriend (don't ask) answers. I let her know in uncertain terms that I need that letter, pronto. She calls me back five minutes later, it was lying nearby. I ask her to scan and send it to me, which she does. I call OK again.
"Alright, I have the letter. I see what you want, although I'm not sure why exactly. The bigger problem is that the letter says I had 60 days to respond, and those 60 days run out on Friday. Can I get an extension?"
"Send us a letter and we will review it"
"But by the time you get the letter, the 60 days will have expired, and I will lose my medical, which I worked really hard to get as a type 1 diabetic. Surely there is another solution? is there an email address?"
"We don't do email, sir, it's not secure"
"for this sort of thing? what sensitive information is involved? um... OK, do you have a fax?"
"Yes! here are the two numbers, send to both of them so we can make sure we get at least one" (that's a direct quote)
Letter crafted, faxed over.
Logged in to my doctor's portal, drafted a request for the necessary information to be available by the time of my quarterly visit in a couple of weeks.
This morning I call OK again. "Did you get the letter?"
"Yes. We will respond by mail"
"But... do I have the extra time? please? can you at least tell me that?"
Pause.
"Oh... OK. I'm not supposed to do that, but yes, you will have enough time to resubmit"
Sigh of relief. Tears of joy - and frustration. Can the FAA be modernized?
And now to the question
The issue turns out to be that my eye doctor for some reason decided to add notations of my current medications to the annual exam report I get from him. This was different than before, although the medications themselves are the same. For whatever reason, the folks in OK decided this required a re-review of my medications, so they are asking for a whole bunch of info from my endo.
The medications themselves are innocent enough - enalarpril and synthroid, both in preventative doses which are common for type 1's, and like I said, I've been taking them for years and the FAA knows about them.
But I don't understand why they are asking all of a sudden. Is there some change that I should know about in terms of the special issuance process? am I going to suddenly lose my medical even though nothing had changed on my end?
So my medical expired in August and I didn't receive my reissued one even thought I sent all the usual paperwork back in mid-June. This happened last year, too, and I called and they sent it to me within a couple of days, so I figured here we go again.
I call OK, speaking to someone. To make this easy, their stuff is in italics.
"Sir, we sent you a letter requesting additional information on July 8th. Did you receive it?"
"No. What did it say?"
"We can't tell you over the phone. We'll send it again. Can you confirm your address?"
Sure, of course. Hang up.
A few minutes later this whole thing is bothering me too much so I call again. Explain what's going on and beg for more information. The lady says "OK, let me look into it" - she was very nice, as were all of them really.
"Looks like the medical review team needs more information from you"
"I get that, but can you tell me what? I sent the same paperwork I send every year"
"No, we can't discuss it over the phone until you get the letter"
"Can you email it to me? fax it? something that will be faster then sending it by mail?"
"No. We can't. But it does show that you received it"
"Come again?"
"You signed for it"
"No I didn't"
"Well, sir... there is a signature here. Let me look... the name looks like XXXX XXXX"
deep breath. "Alright, yes, I recognize the name. It's my ex-wife. Looks like she signed for it and never gave it to me. Let me get back to you"
Call ex-wife. She's asleep. Her girlfriend (don't ask) answers. I let her know in uncertain terms that I need that letter, pronto. She calls me back five minutes later, it was lying nearby. I ask her to scan and send it to me, which she does. I call OK again.
"Alright, I have the letter. I see what you want, although I'm not sure why exactly. The bigger problem is that the letter says I had 60 days to respond, and those 60 days run out on Friday. Can I get an extension?"
"Send us a letter and we will review it"
"But by the time you get the letter, the 60 days will have expired, and I will lose my medical, which I worked really hard to get as a type 1 diabetic. Surely there is another solution? is there an email address?"
"We don't do email, sir, it's not secure"
"for this sort of thing? what sensitive information is involved? um... OK, do you have a fax?"
"Yes! here are the two numbers, send to both of them so we can make sure we get at least one" (that's a direct quote)
Letter crafted, faxed over.
Logged in to my doctor's portal, drafted a request for the necessary information to be available by the time of my quarterly visit in a couple of weeks.
This morning I call OK again. "Did you get the letter?"
"Yes. We will respond by mail"
"But... do I have the extra time? please? can you at least tell me that?"
Pause.
"Oh... OK. I'm not supposed to do that, but yes, you will have enough time to resubmit"
Sigh of relief. Tears of joy - and frustration. Can the FAA be modernized?
And now to the question
The issue turns out to be that my eye doctor for some reason decided to add notations of my current medications to the annual exam report I get from him. This was different than before, although the medications themselves are the same. For whatever reason, the folks in OK decided this required a re-review of my medications, so they are asking for a whole bunch of info from my endo.
The medications themselves are innocent enough - enalarpril and synthroid, both in preventative doses which are common for type 1's, and like I said, I've been taking them for years and the FAA knows about them.
But I don't understand why they are asking all of a sudden. Is there some change that I should know about in terms of the special issuance process? am I going to suddenly lose my medical even though nothing had changed on my end?
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But, if the ex signed for the letter, I'd guess she stayed at the house and he got ran off BY the other woman. 
