Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Ok, so this is really frustrating. I went to the aviation medical examiner last year (a year too early, as it happened), and after an easy exam, he got to the blood pressure part.
There was a bit of frantic brow scrunching, as he explained that I was one point away from being over the FAA limit, which is 155 or so on the systolic. I passed, but he was worried that my blood pressure was dangerously high. Arg! This was particuarly aggravating as I'd been to see my normal doctor (who's even now still not certified as an FAA AME, double arg), and specifically asked him about the high blood pressure the AME had noted.
He said, "I've never seen any indication of high blood pressure with you," or words to that effect. Cool. Only, the AME was still reading high.
So today I went in for a physical with my regular doctor, and noted with interest that my blood pressure was 120 over 80-something. That's definitely not high, and is nowhere near the 155 limit I was brushing last summer.
What changed? I made a conscious effort to reduce salt, but it seems surprising that it would have had that much effect so soon. I pointedly related the story of last summer's AME encounter, and he looked at me incredulously, saying "I've never seen any signs of high blood pressure, Ian, you're fine."
I must say, this is frustrating. I guess I must tense up when I get around the AME, or his equipment is measuring differently, or he's testing differently, or something. Whatever it is, it makes me really wish my regular doctor would get his AME certification.
This all came up, by the way, because I'm finally going to get back into flying, so I can try going up on the 4th of July again. I don't want to dislike flying, but the federal apparatus around it makes that very difficult at times.
Posted at 10:54 permanent link category: /aviation
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater