Epic

"Dress a goat in silk and it's still a goat."
~Celtic Proverb

You know, I had someone pop into my mind right off the bat when I read that...

Speaking of ugly things dressed up to look nice that are still ugly, there are new flying regulations for airlines that says that a person who needs machinery such as oxygen, bipaps, ventilators, etc. to breathe can not fly on the airplane unless that person's machine has a sticker from the machine's manufacturer that states that the machine meets FAA "electromagnet emission safety standards". Two problems with that. One, that's simply another measure that an overblown government agency is implementing so they can say they "Did Something" to make people feel safer. Note I said FEEL safer. It won't actually MAKE anyone safer, any more than those TFRs over football stadiums do anything but get innocent pilots in trouble while not stopping any actual terrorist who might want to dive into one sometime. Problem Number Two is that this has taken the machine manufacturers completely by surprise, they have nothing to do with it, and don't have any guidelines or process or anything available to comply with this new rule. So somebody gets to create a new branch of some form of red tape to create and distribute these silly little stickers. In the meantime, people on vents or oxygen trying to get on airplanes for things as small as vacations and as large as mandatory medical evaluations are being told they can not fly because their machine doesn't have a sticker which did I mention doesn't exist yet and won't affect anyone's safety anyway once it does.

(Here's the article explaining the problem...if you read it from the 3rd paragraph on, you'll see the irony and disgust I feel over it.)

A May 13 ruling from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is proving a headache for manufacturers of respiratory equipment and a frustration for commercial air travelers who rely on ventilators, respirators, positive airway pressure devices such as CPAP and BiPAP, or personal oxygen concentrators.

The DOT ruling says that in order to use any respiratory equipment aboard a commercial airline, the equipment must bear a manufacturer’s label stating that it meets Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety requirements pertaining to electromagnetic emissions. If the label isn’t displayed on the equipment, airlines can deny boarding or refuse to allow use of the equipment during flight.

Unfortunately, the labeling requirement seems to have caught the respiratory equipment industry by surprise. Neither the industry nor individual manufacturers have issued clear guidelines for respiratory equipment users to follow to obtain the necessary label.

A marketing representative at Pulmonetic Systems of Minneapolis told MDA that she was aware of the May 13 ruling, but the company, which manufactures ventilators, has not yet developed a plan of action for dealing with the situation. She said Pulmonetic Systems, in dealing with the FAA, cannot get information to determine what specific language should be on the required labels.

ResMed, of Poway, Calif., which makes CPAPs and other respiratory devices, is in a similar quandary. “I wish I could say we had a 1-800 number that people could call to get instructions, but we don’t,” said ResMed marketing rep Drew Terry. ResMed tech teams are working on a solution, he said.

FAA spokeswoman Nancy Claussen affirmed that the required equipment labels are not widely available.

Claussen said DOT went ahead with launching its May 13 ruling because there were other beneficial aspects of the rule, such as addressing the use of service animals on flights. She said the current confusion will have to be resolved by the airlines and manufacturers.

Right now there's a family in Illinois trying to get to California. Their 5 year old has SMA, and needs a bipap (breathing machine) to help her breathe and a suction machine since she can't swallow well on her own. (You try not swallowing for just five minutes straight and then imagine being told you can't use the machine that helps get that out of your mouth/throat the entire time you're on a flight). She goes out to California almost every month because she is in a special drug trial for a compound they are using to try to slow down and eventually maybe stop SMA. She can't miss the evaluations in California or she's out of the trial and off the medication, which IS helping her. Now they can't fly out there thanks to these new rules. Would you like to drive from Illinois to California regularly? Now would you like to take a medically fragile child on a drive from Illinois to California regularly? There is nowhere else, that is where the drug trial is being held. So what do you do? If you're this family, who has to be there in just a few weeks, you hope your very old van holds itself together, you hope your child doesn't have a medical emergency while out on the road for days at a time, and you drive. And me, I stew over pointless, overblown, nanny regulations that negatively impact real people's lives in a drastic way while doing no actual good whatsoever.

Actually I'm spending today trying to find some way, any way, that I can get them a flight over to CA for this month in the hopes that by the next time they need to go out the manufacturers will have a plan for getting their equipment allowed through airline security again. It bothers me more than you know that here I am a pilot, with access to a small plane that could do it, and I can't just fly them there myself. But I simply can't afford that kind of gas and neither can they.

So I ask the Corporate Jet medical mercy flights, and they only deal with cancer and bone marrow patients, no exceptions. Oh, and their rules state that the kids must have no equipment and be able to walk on board unassisted. Well, that would be a handy trick for paralyzed kiddos. So I talk to the Angel Flight guys, who are all volunteer, small airplane folks just like us. But the logistics of a trip of this size, being passed off every 200-300 miles to another small airplane and pilot in the next state over, and hoping it all comes together fine with weather, airplanes and pilots, one after the other...it's a logistical nightmare and the risks of problems with timing and schedules and everything else are very high of leaving this family halfway in Wyoming waiting in a hotel room for weather or airplane issues to resolve. We need a bigger turbine single engine plane, twin, or one of those supposedly evil corporate jets for a trip of this size. So many organizations helping people get places they need to go when they can't afford it, and not one of them I can find that fits this bill. So far. I am still working on it.

Our "Kokomo Wings and Wheels" Air Show/Breakfast/Fly-in/Drive-in event is careening towards us faster and faster, and Oshkosh is less than a month away now. :O One thing at a time. Our summer has been a huge amount of work for Steve, planning and executing several fly-ins and shows, and he still has our BBQ Bash to go after Oshkosh this year. These things are partly about community relations, pilot camaraderie, promotion, advertising for those interested in flying, but not about bringing in big bucks. This Friday we are starting the festivities with an invitation-only evening cookout, where we've invited out the local government, politicians and persons of interest for food, entertainment, beverages, and if they are interested, a T-6 ride. Then Saturday bright and early begins our Pancake breakfast fly-in at the airport, followed after lunch by the small air show. Sooo much to do, and the devil is in the details. Again, I have to say, I don't know how Steve juggles all that he does.

Kaylee started swim up again today, has new instructors, did well and had a fun time.

And that's more than enough typing out of me for one day.