The End of a Pan Am Pilot Career — One Year Short of Retirement

A Sudden End of My Pan Am Pilot Career

The end of a Pan Am pilot career can come faster than anyone expects. For many airline pilots, it’s a failed FAA medical exam, a check ride gone wrong, or a decline in skills. In my case, it happened suddenly — a medical condition I had never even heard of grounded me just one year before I was scheduled to retire.

WALL PAPER

During the last eight years of flying for Pan Am, I commuted from San Francisco to New York where I was based and flew the Atlantic routes. Several other pilots and I maintained a commuter apartment in Queens near the airport.

On this particular day I had to report for my flight at 6:00 p.m. to go to London. I had arrived from San Francisco the previous evening so I would be rested for the flight. During mid-morning I began hanging some wallpaper in the kitchen to dress it up a little. The paper was self-adhesive so it was a rather easy job.

However, I noticed that I was getting dizzy while hanging this paper. It was intermittent, and I thought the adhesive material might have been toxic to me because it did have an odor. When this continued, I decided to stop the project.

THE FLIGHT

On the flight to London, there are occasions when I would need to tilt my head back and to the right in order to reach something on the overhead circuit breaker panel. Each time I did this, I noticed that I still got that dizzy feeling. After getting my head back to the normal position, the dizziness would go away.

Dizziness caused by BPPV

THE RETURN FLIGHT

On the return flight from London to New York I experienced the same sensation. Each time I leaned my head back to reach something on the overhead panel I would get dizzy, and it would stop a few seconds after returning my head to a normal position.

THE DOCTOR APPOINTMENT

As soon as I got back to San Francisco I made an appointment with our family doctor, who referred me to an ear specialist. Over the course of a week, he put me through a series of tests — both passive and active — to confirm what he thought I had.

BPPV

The diagnosis was BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). At that moment I knew my Pan Am flying career was over.

However, I still had to go to an FAA doctor to take a formal flight physical so that doctor could send a report to the FAA Medical Center, who would make the final decision as to whether I would pass the physical or not.

Obviously, you can’t pass a flight physical if you have BPPV, so this was just a formality. The FAA Medical Office sent back a letter denying the physical. After reporting the diagnosis and the FAA’s decision to my company, I was removed from flight status and placed on medical leave.

THE CAUSE

The doctor said this condition was probably caused by a virus that, a few weeks earlier, had almost developed into pneumonia. It apparently attacked my inner ear and caused the damage.

There are tiny calcium “stones” inside your inner ear canals to help you keep your balance. Normally, when you move a certain way these stones move around. But infection or inflammation can stop the stones from moving as they should. This sends a false message to your brain and affects your balance.

Diagram of inner ear

The “good” ear is telling your brain that you are okay, and the “bad” ear is sending the opposite signal. That contradiction creates dizziness until the brain sorts it out.

In one more year I would have been forced to retire due to the mandatory retirement age of 60. So I was fortunate that I was only forced to retire medically one year early.

AVOCATIONS

Since I had several avocations that I enjoyed, I was able to adjust without too much difficulty. There were still adjustments to the normal routines that both my wife and I were accustomed to. With a lot of love and understanding, we got through it.

I missed the people I worked with and the excitement of the job, but I also had music, photography, sailing, and other activities that I could now spend more time enjoying. Read some more stories on my Blog