William "Brash" Hannon
New Member
The goal of this post is to relieve any stress that candidates may be experiencing about their flight physical. It is lengthy but descriptive.
I took my physical this month, after an extremely long period of anxiety and waiting. The experience was MUCH less difficult than I ever could have imagined. I begin this thread as something I could have read a month ago, before my visit to NAMI. Hopefully it will be informative and put some candidates' minds at ease.
I arrived in Pensacola a day before my exam. I checked into my hotel and ate a quick dinner. I had been hydrating extensively during the preceding weeks, but I didn't eat or drink anything after 1900 that night. This is necessary for some of your tests (so false readings don't occur) and it also helps lower your blood pressure.
A note on the staff at NAMI: the organization is run mostly by the Navy corpsmen that are usually HM3-HM1's. I didn't meet one that I didn't like. They were efficient and friendly. There are also a few civilians that handle some of the administrative aspects of your physical. They were also friendly. The HM's and civilians operate under the guidance of a few doctors (flight surgeons) that generally oversee the process.
The next morning I reported to NAMI at 0630. You check in at the front desk; the whole place had hints of an airport mixed with a waiting room. A Navy enlisted corpsman is there to greet you and present you your medical package. You will have a few pieces of paperwork to fill out and sign. Do this immediately, because your eyes will be dilated later in the day.
After the paperwork is done, everything settles down as the corpsmen prepare their stations. The next few hours operate like MEPS. You will sit in the waiting room as corpsmen sporadically announce that they are ready for their next patient. One will call your name and you will get up and complete whatever test they have in store.
The tests that occur during this period are as follows: vitals (blood pressure, pulse rate, etc.), EKG, blood drawings, urinalysis. The corpsmen are very patient and want you to pass. For example, my blood pressure was high during the first few readings. The corpsman told me, "Take a few minutes, go sit down and relax, and come back to me when you feel ready." I did just that and my blood pressure dropped significantly!
Next, a corpsman will call you back for your eye exams. These are the eye tests I remember: colorblindness test, perception test, puff test, classic eye tests (reading letters off a board), and peripheral test. Then they put a few drops in your eyes and do some of the same tests again. Your eyes dilate and you practically go blind for about 3 hours. The last eye test comes when a flight surgeon calls you back and physically inspects your eye with a microscope. All in all, these eye exams are quick paced and over before you know it.
Now you are back in the waiting room when a flight surgeon calls your name. You will go back into his office for a quick interview. He will ask you a few questions about your life, go over your medical history, and make sure you are a pretty normal person. Then he will walk you across the hall into an examination room for your physical. He will listen to your chest with a stethoscope and feel around a little bit. You will demonstrate some very basic motor skills. You will stand on one leg with your eyes closed. Then you will drop your drawers for a hernia check ("Look to the left and cough") and back door visual check (Keyword: visual. No fingerswiping involved). Just as you're becoming pretty good friends with the flight surgeon, he tosses you back in the waiting room and doesn't even leave you his number.
You have a few more tests to undergo, and these take place outside of the NAMI building. A corpsman or civilian will tell you where you need to go to retrieve the necessary paperwork. You will go to one building for your anthropomorphic measurements. A civilian will sit you down and measure you. Just like getting fitted for a tuxedo.
Then you will go to another building that houses the rest of your flight physical. Here you will visit the dentist, undergo a hearing test, and receive a chest x-ray. The dentist will take x-rays and physically look at your teeth. That's about it. He will give you some paperwork to put in your package. The chest x-ray takes about 5 minutes. You stand in front of a machine and the technician emails the x-rays to a flight surgeon for review. The hearing test takes about 10 minutes. It is very similar to the test at MEPS. Unless you have a history of poor hearing, I imagine it is pretty difficult to fail this one. I thought I did poorly, but the test administrator said that I did outstanding.
At this point, you will return your package the front desk of the NAMI building and they will send you on your merry way. Now that all of your tests have been completed, your package is ready for final review. As you go through your flight physical, you will learn if you passed immediately after that test. For example, that morning I took the EKG and the corpsman said, "Great, it all looks good." Unfortunately, the blood test, urinalysis test, and chest x-ray must be submitted for review, but you will hear about your results shortly.
This recount was my experience at NAMI. I’m sure every other flight physical is different in some way or another. Also, I am no expert on the inner workings of NAMI and Navy Medicine. This recount simply lays out the way I saw things. Good luck, and remember that the ONLY way to prepare for a flight physical is to be in good shape and eat healthy. Everything else is out of your control.
I took my physical this month, after an extremely long period of anxiety and waiting. The experience was MUCH less difficult than I ever could have imagined. I begin this thread as something I could have read a month ago, before my visit to NAMI. Hopefully it will be informative and put some candidates' minds at ease.
I arrived in Pensacola a day before my exam. I checked into my hotel and ate a quick dinner. I had been hydrating extensively during the preceding weeks, but I didn't eat or drink anything after 1900 that night. This is necessary for some of your tests (so false readings don't occur) and it also helps lower your blood pressure.
A note on the staff at NAMI: the organization is run mostly by the Navy corpsmen that are usually HM3-HM1's. I didn't meet one that I didn't like. They were efficient and friendly. There are also a few civilians that handle some of the administrative aspects of your physical. They were also friendly. The HM's and civilians operate under the guidance of a few doctors (flight surgeons) that generally oversee the process.
The next morning I reported to NAMI at 0630. You check in at the front desk; the whole place had hints of an airport mixed with a waiting room. A Navy enlisted corpsman is there to greet you and present you your medical package. You will have a few pieces of paperwork to fill out and sign. Do this immediately, because your eyes will be dilated later in the day.
After the paperwork is done, everything settles down as the corpsmen prepare their stations. The next few hours operate like MEPS. You will sit in the waiting room as corpsmen sporadically announce that they are ready for their next patient. One will call your name and you will get up and complete whatever test they have in store.
The tests that occur during this period are as follows: vitals (blood pressure, pulse rate, etc.), EKG, blood drawings, urinalysis. The corpsmen are very patient and want you to pass. For example, my blood pressure was high during the first few readings. The corpsman told me, "Take a few minutes, go sit down and relax, and come back to me when you feel ready." I did just that and my blood pressure dropped significantly!
Next, a corpsman will call you back for your eye exams. These are the eye tests I remember: colorblindness test, perception test, puff test, classic eye tests (reading letters off a board), and peripheral test. Then they put a few drops in your eyes and do some of the same tests again. Your eyes dilate and you practically go blind for about 3 hours. The last eye test comes when a flight surgeon calls you back and physically inspects your eye with a microscope. All in all, these eye exams are quick paced and over before you know it.
Now you are back in the waiting room when a flight surgeon calls your name. You will go back into his office for a quick interview. He will ask you a few questions about your life, go over your medical history, and make sure you are a pretty normal person. Then he will walk you across the hall into an examination room for your physical. He will listen to your chest with a stethoscope and feel around a little bit. You will demonstrate some very basic motor skills. You will stand on one leg with your eyes closed. Then you will drop your drawers for a hernia check ("Look to the left and cough") and back door visual check (Keyword: visual. No fingerswiping involved). Just as you're becoming pretty good friends with the flight surgeon, he tosses you back in the waiting room and doesn't even leave you his number.
You have a few more tests to undergo, and these take place outside of the NAMI building. A corpsman or civilian will tell you where you need to go to retrieve the necessary paperwork. You will go to one building for your anthropomorphic measurements. A civilian will sit you down and measure you. Just like getting fitted for a tuxedo.
Then you will go to another building that houses the rest of your flight physical. Here you will visit the dentist, undergo a hearing test, and receive a chest x-ray. The dentist will take x-rays and physically look at your teeth. That's about it. He will give you some paperwork to put in your package. The chest x-ray takes about 5 minutes. You stand in front of a machine and the technician emails the x-rays to a flight surgeon for review. The hearing test takes about 10 minutes. It is very similar to the test at MEPS. Unless you have a history of poor hearing, I imagine it is pretty difficult to fail this one. I thought I did poorly, but the test administrator said that I did outstanding.
At this point, you will return your package the front desk of the NAMI building and they will send you on your merry way. Now that all of your tests have been completed, your package is ready for final review. As you go through your flight physical, you will learn if you passed immediately after that test. For example, that morning I took the EKG and the corpsman said, "Great, it all looks good." Unfortunately, the blood test, urinalysis test, and chest x-ray must be submitted for review, but you will hear about your results shortly.
This recount was my experience at NAMI. I’m sure every other flight physical is different in some way or another. Also, I am no expert on the inner workings of NAMI and Navy Medicine. This recount simply lays out the way I saw things. Good luck, and remember that the ONLY way to prepare for a flight physical is to be in good shape and eat healthy. Everything else is out of your control.
