Bad AME

Throw money at the problem: go to a different AME and get checked out
and a certificate issued. There's one in the Boston area that will see
you within a few hours.



Wiz wrote:
OK - so I was all ready to take my PP-ASEL checkride (in part, thanks
to all
the great posts here), and went to register for IACRA. Couldn't do it.
Called the web folks at FAA. Turns out the number on the
medical/student pilot certificate in my physical posession (the one
with my endorsements on it) has a different number than the the medical
form that the FAA has on file.

What happened? After canceling my checkride last Tuesday and talking
to the AME's office several times, including talking with the
unsympathetic-sounding doctor, I have yet to get a straight answer, let
alone a solution. Here's my educated guess: When I did my exam in
February of this year, I had to get some follow-up from my primary
medical doctor due to a medication I was taking. After submitting that
to the AME's office in person, I still never received my certificate.
I called several times over three weeks and didn't get any explanation.
The office assistant repeatedly told me she would call me back when my
certificate was "ready," but she never did. Eventually, I sort of
insisted that I get my certificate, and she told me to come in and pick
it up. I speculate that she lost it, and to appease me, she just
filled out my part of another one, tore it off, and gave it to me, not
caring that it didn't match the medical exam form she sent to the FAA.

When I spoke to the doctor upon first discovering this, he treated it
like an annoyance (hey, he cashed the check already, right?) and didn't
seem to care that I had to cancel my checkride. By contrast, the FAA
was very helpful - gave me a fax number so the doctor could fax a note
straightening it out (which he hasn't done -- last week the doc said
they would call me the next Monday, I called on Monday when they didn't
and the new office assistant said she would check into it and to call
Tuesday, called today (today) and she isn't in...)

I rescheduled my checkride from December 2 to December 20, my next
available date. May not have the opportunity to fly in the meantime,
so that's 18 days of rust building up...

Contact me off list if you are looking for an AME in the Washington, DC
area, and want to know who to avoid. Sorry to sound so critical, but
under the circumstances, I think I'm justified.

Wiz

Welcome to the FAA bureaucracy.

NW_PILOT" NW_PILOT@"(nospammeok) wrote:
I'd doubt seriously that this clown has any friends among the other
AME's in the area.



And then again you never know!


I think it's safe to assume, if I were the AME's best friend and he told me he
got screwed over by one of his patients, that I would promptly forget the name
of the offender. I might remember what happened to my friend but not who did it
to him. Doctors have enough crap to remember as it is without having to worry
about some other doctor's disgruntled patients.

I wouldn't worry about his friends. Remember, these AME's are competitors.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Wiz :
Contact me off list if you are looking for an AME in the Washington, DC area, and want to know who to avoid.

Who's good 'n cheap near DC? I'm in Sterling, VA. Thanks in advance.

Flyingmonk wrote:
Wiz :
Contact me off list if you are looking for an AME in the Washington, DC area, and want to know who to avoid.

Who's good 'n cheap near DC? I'm in Sterling, VA. Thanks in advance.

We have been using RA Comanale in McLean ever since Frank Austin closed
up his office in Sterling. I would avoid Shapiro in Reston (I have my
own horror stories with him). I've seen Sager in Reston as well, but
Margy and I have both have had minor issues with him (but he is OK).

Ron Natalie wrote:
Flyingmonk wrote:
Wiz :
Contact me off list if you are looking for an AME in the Washington,
DC area, and want to know who to avoid.

Who's good 'n cheap near DC? I'm in Sterling, VA. Thanks in advance.

We have been using RA Comanale in McLean ever since Frank Austin closed
up his office in Sterling. I would avoid Shapiro in Reston (I have my
own horror stories with him). I've seen Sager in Reston as well, but
Margy and I have both have had minor issues with him (but he is OK).
Ack...typo...the name is Dr. R.A. Comunale.

Ron Natalie wrote:

How is it not the doctor's fault? The doctor is who SIGNS the medical
and attests to the FAA and the public he has done the examination. It's
up to him to oversee any delegation of that duty he does to his staff?

I agree with Ron here, not only because he has an ethical responsibiity
and his office staff's mistakes are his, too, but because he didn't
seem to give a damn when I informed him of it. Granted, my having to
cancel my checkride is a big deal to me and probably no one else, but
my contacting him about this seemed just to be an annoyance to him. He
clearly didn't want to have to follow up on it (and didn't, by the
way...)

Wiz

Possible solution -- called the FAA again today, and a very helpful
person in Medical Certification Customer Service told me if I faxed the
certificate in my possession to them, with a note of explanation, she
would change the number on my record to match the certificate I have.
Still no contact from the AME's office.

By the way, I neglected to mention that the AME's office also changed a
digit in my social security number. The FAA fixed that for me once
they found my record.

OK - hopefully the last chapter. AME actually called me today,
admitted the office mistake, and had faxed info to the FAA who just
changed the number to the number of the certificate I was given.
Thanks for the support/suggestions...

Thanks Ron, got his number?