Just for the record, and I'm probably stating this again, this was not a new diagnosis and was not unknown to the FAA. It had previously issued a medical with the requirement that IF the symptoms reappeared or IF the medication for it changed, I was not to exercise airman privileges.
The FAA doesn't make clear if that means during the time the symptoms present themselves or for ever and ever, amen.
My medical was up at the end of May. The symptoms presented themselves in February. I grounded myself.
The system worked fine. The pilot in question is a really good pilot in all facets of safety. The pilot has no interest in endangering himself, his passengers, or anyone on the ground.
As a result, the pilot wasn't endangered, the passengers weren't endangered, and no one on the ground was endangered.
The system is STILL working fine, so long as the FAA doesn't just say, "oh, you have Meniere's, you can't fly anymore, ever.," and says instead, "oh, you have Meniere's, have it be stable for six months, or a year, and then we'll talk." Presently, I'm trying to ascertain what they're actually saying. I've had some good contacts with people inside the FAA so far and the answers have been so far: "Don't bother, you're done; come back in six months; and come back in a year."
Meniere's symptoms have warning signs, often days in advance.
Yes, I think it's possible that if you give pilots the opportunity to do something stupid -- like flying when they know they shouldn't -- they'll probably do something stupid.
But a lot of healthy pilots are doing stupid things out there (and I'm not seeing a bunch of LSAs fallingout of the sky for medical reasons, while I am seeing fully certificated pilots falling out of the sky for non-medical ones) and the question isn't really one of keeping people on the ground so they won't do something stupid. The question is there a way to provide education to lessen the chance they'll do something stupid.
Self certification isn't about flying when you shouldn't. Yes, that would be offensive. Self certification is about knowing when you shouldn't fly.
And as someone pointed out, we're all doing that to some extent now.
What would I do differently? I'd have let the 3rd class expire until the symptoms fully resolved (obviously with the help of the ENT), and I would've brought to the AME a better accounting of my situation, and all of the data -- ENT narrative, clinical notes, hearing tests, whatever -- all at once instead the way i did it.
I tried to sneak all of this passed the AME and I would have had I not made two critical mistakes: (a) I mistakenly wrote down Benadryl (a banned substance) under medication I'm taking (indicating it was "as needed") because I misread the question. I wasn't really taking it at that time and I take Benadryl for the same reason everyone else does and (2) I indicated I was on a diuretic, which is not a banned substance and has no side effects, but which threw up a red flag that there might be a reason I was.
I feel bad about approaching it that way, but that's what I did. The fact that I did is what's wrong with the current system and the relationship between pilot and medical certification. It's inherently a dishonest one.