At the time, I had just finished sending in an appeal to being denied a medical clearance to become a pilot because of a history of clinical depression.
That appeal required undergoing a battery of tests, a psychological evaluation, multiple meetings with a therapist and a report from the same, and 15 hours of flight instruction plus a report of my performance by the flight instructors.
I intended to be professional. Everyone thought I was safe to fly.
I nevertheless thought the FAA would deny my appeal. I was right. [1]
So because I once had clinical depression, I can't get a medical. And yet, yahoos like this get to fly simply because stupidity and malice isn't as well-documented as a history of mental illness. Sigh...
To be clear, I don't think the FAA is at fault here; they didn't know, and they acted fast once he did it. They did a great job.
I just wish they would let me fly.
[1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2022/09/grounded-for-life-losing-the...
I also have a wife. I can't just pack up and move to a different country.
When the rejection came, I decided my marriage was worth more than flying.
Having now lived outside of the US for a period of time, I've come to the grand realization that the US is one of the least 'free' countries out there (and I moved to a communist country!).
My guess is that if you really wanted to find a way to fly, you could, and it wouldn't require moving.
If there is a will, there is a way.
But no. I was punished for being honest.
https://gavinhoward.com/2020/10/the-next-great-project-zion/
(This one jumped out to me in particular.) https://gavinhoward.com/2022/08/the-nature-of-heaven-what-i-...
https://gavinhoward.com/2021/07/the-next-free-nation/ https://gavinhoward.com/2021/06/israel-is-not-an-apartheid-s... https://gavinhoward.com/2020/07/political-slavery/
These posts you've been making might have more of an influence on your application than your medical history, bro.
edit:
In this post: https://gavinhoward.com/2021/07/the-next-free-nation/
You stated ..."So the United States must die.
But what will rise in its place will be even greater: Zion."
Bro, I would NOT want you flying my plane after reading that.
It’s especially troubling with the hype surrounding “mental illness” or “neurodiversity” and popularization of it amongst the youth. It seems to be creating a nation of prohibited persons and second class citizens.
The FAA needs to get its stuff together in this regard, and quickly.
Mainly it was a matter of learning how to do the paperwork properly. Some people here pay bribes, others refuse to. I won't claim everything here is magically ideal, but as a general rule if you don't put yourself in situations where you need to pay bribes, you won't have to pay them. Mostly simple things like getting a driver's license if you're going to drive, maintaining your vehicle, and registering your current address.
Foreign residents here do have a bit of a reputation for poor compliance on stuff like this and doing everything the shadiest, laziest, and most fragile way possible.
This situation has improved in recent years -- I currently know maybe 4 or 5 other legal immigrants. We are a minority -- your assumptions about the behavior of the average person who moves here from North America are not entirely without merit, it's just not a universal truth.
Anyway I don't mean to argue with you -- just provide a hopefully interesting slice of life from a different part of the world.
Reach out to West Desert Aviators in Utah. Several young people in tech fly there. If you can find LSA to fly, light sport isn’t as restrictive of a license as it’s made out to be and you don’t have to live in fear of the FAA yanking your medical
I guess I was so discouraged because I wanted to become a professional helicopter pilot, for which I needed a first-class medical.
I love the ability to just pay the cops off, it is the best corruption ever. Who wants to go to court when you can just settle the matter right then and there for a few bucks. I also have a totally valid drivers license (A2) with my picture super imposed on someone else's head.
I'm curious, how did you immigrate there?
I want to be a pilot, though.
The stuff about mental health starts about half way through, the first half is recounting the incident.
My beliefs include strong loyalty to the current government. See D&C 134:5.
Read the rest of the thread and my updated post. It's clear that I also believe I must have loyalty to the current government.
See D&C 134:5.
It's one thing to say "I'd like to move away to another place with more like-minded people" or even "I'd like to influence my country to align better with my own values". Great. Those are both pretty uncontroversial, non-extremist opinions. It's a whole other kettle of fish to believe "My country/city should be replaced by one composed of exclusively like-minded people." Particularly problematic if by like-minded people, you mean followers of a particular religion.
Yes, I worded things very poorly. I'm famous for doing that. But I attempted to fix those problems after people have criticized me in this thread.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
I don't think this distinction makes much difference in this case. It's clear which person people thought was the "religious zealot" and were ganging up on. He also broke the site guidelines badly, of course.