Flight Physical Wait Time?

[Phrost_Bite]

Does anyone know what the wait time is to get a flight physical done? Still haven't had mine. I talked to my OSO yesterday and he mentioned something about a waiting list of like 6 months to even get down to have one completed! Has anyone else heard of this? Im done with school next week (Thank God!), but still have to finish up PLC Sr. in May. I would like to commission as soon as I finish OCS, but if this flight physical isn't done and approved by then, it will be delayed... Say, is it possible for me to commission before my physical? I'd still have 6 months of TBS before even thinking about flying. That should be plenty of time to get this whole flight physical crap sorted out...shouldn't it... Any help would be great!

 

[theblakeness]

If you are an air contract, you will need a physical before you commission. Im not sure about the delay of getting an appointment for one but I know that there are set dates that they do them and only so many go at a time. I have heard of Candidates being able to get them done at other Air Stations so maybe you can ask your OSO if that is a possibility. After the physical is complete, you should know that it typically takes several months for the physical to be approved. Many Candidates have had there commissioning delayed because of the wait.

 

[Phrost_Bite]

Thanks for the reply. Why the hell does it take so long for them to approve the damn physical anyways? Do they do a background medical history search on you or something. I'm no doctor, but is it really that hard to figure out if someone is fit to fly after examining them?

 

[theblakeness]

its my understanding that there is only one Doc that reviews and approves physicals and he is pretty tedious. Waivers, which many Candidates have at least one, tend to produce holdups.

 

[Swanee]

Thanks for the reply. Why the hell does it take so long for them to approve the damn physical anyways? Do they do a background medical history search on you or something. I'm no doctor, but is it really that hard to figure out if someone is fit to fly after examining them?

One thing you will learn is that you will wait, a lot (especially for a mysterious thing called the word).

I got my flight physical pretty much right away from my OSO, but, I didn't hear that it went through until 2 week (thats 14 days) before I commissioned. Some guys went to TBS on a ground contract and switched to air once it came through.

Be patient, you have time.

 

[Phrost_Bite]

Finally got a date. Feb 7th. That gives them just about six months to get it back to me before I get back from PLC Sr. Also, I just went to the dentist and had a couple cavities filled a few months back. They said I had another one in my wisdom tooth but want to pull all four as opposed to fixing them. Do you think the flight doc's will give me a hard time about the cavity or should I just get in to have them yank it out before I go for my physical?

 

[radkindoical]

Finally got a date. Feb 7th. That gives them just about six months to get it back to me before I get back from PLC Sr. Also, I just went to the dentist and had a couple cavities filled a few months back. They said I had another one in my wisdom tooth but want to pull all four as opposed to fixing them. Do you think the flight doc's will give me a hard time about the cavity or should I just get in to have them yank it out before I go for my physical?

I would say get the cavity taken care of definately, but I don't think you have to pull your wisdom teeth out unless they are growing side ways or might cause dental problems in the future. I know a guy that got dq because his two lower wisdom teeth were growing sideways and pretty much told him to pull them out and come back.

 

[Cron]

If you are an air contract, you will need a physical before you commission.

I believe that's only the case for OCC guys not PLC, unless things changed.

Also, I just went to the dentist and had a couple cavities filled a few months back. They said I had another one in my wisdom tooth but want to pull all four as opposed to fixing them. Do you think the flight doc's will give me a hard time about the cavity or should I just get in to have them yank it out before I go for my physical?

If anything, the doc will probably just tell you to get them taken care of sometime down the road. It's up to you if you want to get it over with now, though.

 

[Phrost_Bite]

I'm going to call on Monday to see if I can get in in the next few weeks to have them pulled. I'm ready to get on with my life as a Marine and don't want any further delays. Let's say I can't get in before my physical, and they tell me I need to fix'em before I commission, how much more of a delay could I be expecting?

 

[Phrost_Bite]

They're yanking them out on Wednesday. Everybody keeps telling me it's going to hurt like hell! I think I'll be fine though. Thanks for all the info everyone!

 

[Phrost_Bite]

Finally got a date. Feb 7th. That gives them just about six months to get it back to me before I get back from PLC Sr.

Everything went well overall. The douchbag screwed up my EKG but they didn't find anything wrong. They didn't have any problems with my teeth either. What's the deal though with this 120 day wait period to commission after approval? That sucks! I had my hopes set on commissiong in July but being realistic it won't happen till September or October. Oh well, "hurry up and wait" right?

 

[jtmedli]

Everything went well overall. The douchbag screwed up my EKG but they didn't find anything wrong.

I hate to break it to you, but I don't think anyone I know has had they're EKG work right the first time. Mine took about 4-5 attempts before it worked out and still wasn't a 'good one' according to the corpsman, but he said it looked fine. Whatever that means.

And BTW, my physical was done in September and got a call from the OSO last week saying they were just now looking at it. Hurry up and wait is right.