GEAR UP FLYING Opinion
64 | SEPTEMBER 2019 FLYINGMAG.COMAFTER THE GAME,
A SODA
HOW AN INJURY DECADES AGO JEOPARDIZED A FLYING LIFEBy Dick KarlI
t all started with a girl in high
school. She was cute, and her father
was athletic. He worked in the court
system just across from Yankee
Stadium in the Bronx, and at lunch-
time he would play a game of squash.
I had no idea what that was, but he
encouraged me to find out when I got
to college. To impress his daughter, I
did, and for the next 45 years I enjoyed
this exhausting game that is much
like racket ball except the ball doesn’t
move, so you have to.
In the spring of my freshman year,
I was introducing a friend to the game
when I got hit in the eye with a squash
ball rocketing off his racket. I immedi-
ately lost sight in my eye. I ran to the
locker room and saw my eye full of
blood, called a hyphema. I was admit-
ted to the infirmary where both eyes
were bandaged until the blood was
resorbed and my eyesight restored.
I was missing class and, more
important to me, the beer and girls.
Four score and five years later,
high pressure was detected in my left
eye; I had a form of glaucoma caused
by trauma, so-called narrow angle
glaucoma. Untreated, the optic nerveatrophies and blindness is inevita-
ble. So began my skirmish with eye
pressure. At first, I was treated with
eye drops that decrease the produc-
tion of aqueous humor or increase
the drainage of the fluid. If this
didn’t work, an operation on the eye
was necessary. One ophthalmologist
told me that my flying career would
be over. I became more compulsive
about the eye drops.
After I retired from Part 135 f lying
though, I began to have a decrease
in the visual fields in the left eye. An
operation called the Baerveldt shunt
was proposed. You might want to
watch this procedure on YouTube—
only if you plan never to have this
done to you and aren’t squeamish. It is
akin to a hot poker to the eye.
Postoperatively, my vision was
worse, and I knew that I would
not pass my next FA A medical
exam. I would need a Statement of
Demonstrated Ability from the FA A
before I could get back in the air. The
FA A has made provisions for pilots
with color blindness and decreased
vision in one eye, among other
maladies. I’m told that even someairline pilots with first-class medical
certificates are one-eyed.
So on April 1, I faxed my required
forms to the FA A in Oklahoma
City. Two weeks later, having heard
nothing, I called my regional flight
surgeon’s office in Atlanta, where
they confirmed that the fax had
been received, but it “had not yet
been uploaded.” A helpful person
said she would upload the form if I
emailed it to her.
On May 6, five weeks after faxing
the form, I received by mail a new
medical certificate dated one year
prior (in other words, about to expire
in 25 days) with the limitation:
“Valid for medical f light test only,
not valid for solo f light.” This super-
seded any previous medical. I had
just a short time to arrange a medi-
cal f light test to prove I could see well
enough to f ly. I was advised to make
an appointment with the supervis-
ing inspector at the Tampa Flight
Standards District Office.
Since I live close to the FSDO, I
went over there. A forbidding sign
greeted me: “The Tampa FSDO will
see the public by appointment only.”