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Aviation Medicine Analysed
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Aviation Medicine Has It a Place in General Aviation?
On 1st January 1985 a new syllabus for the commercial pilot licence examination is due to be activated. This syllabus has a number of innovations, not the least being the introduction. into the aeroplane performance and operation syllabus the topic of ‘Aviation Medicine’. This is not a new subject for a number of organisations, as the Cessna CPC Programme has a section on Basic Aviation Physiology, the integrated flying schools have also had some aviation medicine and the Department of Technical and Further Education in New South Wales have introduced some aviation medicine. Despite this, aviation medicine has not received the same recognition as other aviation subjects. In this article Dr Graeme Maclaren, a designated medical examiner who practises on Bankstown Airport, discusses, briefly, the importance of aviation medicine to general aviation.
The image of aviation medicine in General Aviation over the years has been very much the one of the poor relations of the industry. Apart from the regular visit to the DofA doctor (usually one with a reputation of giving a ‘ticket’ with a minimum of fuss), we have survived very well without you, thank you very much! So why now the sudden interest in an aspect of aviation that has been with us, historically, since the first balloon flights?
Firstly, let me dismiss the most important reason from a pilot’s point of view and the least important from the point of view of those of us who have a special interest in aviation medicine from a practical point of view, at the outset. As fromJanuary1985 aviation medicine will become an examination subject included in the Commercial Aeroplane Performance and Operations Examination. In future you will have to answer questions on the subject. Most educators would agree that information learnt for reproduction in an examination is the fastest lost following the completion of the examination. For what is, at the bottom line, a life and death subject, enough interest and motivation has to be generated by those of us who teach and practise the subject so that pilots will want to continue to learn more about aviation medicine beyond passing examinations.
If passing of examinations, although necessary, are of lesser importance for having a knowledge of aviation medicine, what are the more important reasons? Aviation medicine has applications in most areas of general aviation. Let me illustrate this by following a student pilot’s path through general aviation to becoming a professional pilot and showing where knowledge of aviation medicine can be applied to his flying.
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