Should I get a class 2 or go straight to class 1?
Posted by Alive-Meal-3787@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 4 comments
I’m 22, about 6 years ago I had a year long episode of depression and anxiety. There was a consideration of psychosis due to me feeling like I was seeing things out the corner of eye etc, but it was ruled out, a psychiatrist now has also confirmed the findings at the time that it was anxiety related not psychosis. Anti psychotic medication, SSRI etc was prescribed at the time. There was an accidental prescription overdose, not a life threatening one, that was at the time recorded as a possible suicide attempt but has now been corrected as not an attempt. There was also an isolated incident of me giving myself a superficial burn with a matchstick.
Anyways, long story short, the psychiatrist has written that since it was 1 episode, 6 years ago, during Covid lockdown, and while I was 16. It’s very unlikely to happen again and it’s not likely a threat to flight safety. Otherwise I am completely healthy, physically and mentally, employed, educated etc.
Given all this, I have an AME willing to give me a class 2 medical. This AME does not do class 1’s as in the UK there’s only a handful that do.
I know you guys aren’t AME’s, and you’re not the CAA, but I’d still like to see what you guys would do in my situation.
Go straight for a class 1 with the possibility of a long deferral. Or I get a class 2, fly for a bit longer, than when I go to the CAA I can say I already have a class 2 and I have flight time, along with the psychiatric report that’ll say I am healthy, and even more time will have passed making an even stronger case.
I feel stuck at a crossroads here. My AME has weighed both sides to me, and basically said as I did, he couldn’t concretely say one path is better than the other.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
If you want to be a professional pilot, get a class 1 medical.
If you get denied a class 1 medical, you can still potentially get a class 2 one (or fly on a PMD) and fly for fun. But until you have class 1 medical in your hand, you won't know whether you can get a CPL/ATPL or not.
Alive-Meal-3787@reddit (OP)
Understood. I’ve booked the class 1.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
I’m 22, about 6 years ago I had a year long episode of depression and anxiety. There was a consideration of psychosis due to me feeling like I was seeing things out the corner of eye etc, but it was ruled out, a psychiatrist now has also confirmed the findings at the time that it was anxiety related not psychosis. Anti psychotic medication, SSRI etc was prescribed at the time. There was an accidental prescription overdose, not a life threatening one, that was at the time recorded as a possible suicide attempt but has now been corrected as not an attempt. There was also an isolated incident of me giving myself a superficial burn with a matchstick.
Anyways, long story short, the psychiatrist has written that since it was 1 episode, 6 years ago, during Covid lockdown, and while I was 16. It’s very unlikely to happen again and it’s not likely a threat to flight safety. Otherwise I am completely healthy, physically and mentally, employed, educated etc.
Given all this, I have an AME willing to give me a class 2 medical. This AME does not do class 1’s as in the UK there’s only a handful that do.
I know you guys aren’t AME’s, and you’re not the CAA, but I’d still like to see what you guys would do in my situation.
Go straight for a class 1 with the possibility of a long deferral. Or I get a class 2, fly for a bit longer, than when I go to the CAA I can say I already have a class 2 and I have flight time, along with the psychiatric report that’ll say I am healthy, and even more time will have passed making an even stronger case.
I feel stuck at a crossroads here. My AME has weighed both sides to me, and basically said as I did, he couldn’t concretely say one path is better than the other.
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Hi, I'm a bot and it looks like you're asking a question about medical issues: depression.
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