Kenny Keller describes his recent experience renewing an aviation medical certificate and offers practical tips to reduce stress for others facing the exam. He recommends limiting coffee (to avoid elevated blood pressure), drinking water (to pass the urine test), getting an up-to-date eyeglass prescription, and using deep breaths to calm anxiety. He relays the examiner's reassurance that failures are rare and that AMEs generally aim to help applicants, and advises new trainees to get their medical early so there is time to correct any issues.
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Hey, hope I got a good feed here. I want to talk about the stress over the aviation medical exam. You know, doing these daily videos. I just went in, got my medical renewed, okay, awesome feeling. But there's a lot of stress leading up to it. And if you're stressed over it, put your comments down below. We want to hear your stories. But I gave a tip a week or so ago about getting a new set of glasses. Well, I was super stressed going in there today. I've been doing these for 20 years. The Examiner, I use the aviation medical examiners. He's a flight surgeon, ex military, been doing it forever, 40 some years. And he always does the same thing. Everybody gets stressed over the medical. And I remembered some tips last time that he gave me. He said, don't drink coffee on the way over here again, because I did that that day, right? Got up in the morning, drink coffee, drink coffee on the way to the exam, and then had, you know, trouble with the blood pressure. And he's like, okay, you got to calm down. And he goes, I bet you drink coffee on the way over here. And I go, yes, I did. So anyway, so that was one thing. I drank less coffee this morning because that's the one big stressor is the blood pressure. How's that going to be? And then I drank two full bottles of water on the way over here. Okay, because everybody worries about peeing in the cup, right? Two bottles of water in about a 40 minute drive. That was absolutely no problem. And I actually did better this year than ever. And I went in, we started talking and he just kind of laughed and he said, everybody worries about peeing the cup. Everybody worries about the I part, Everybody worries about blood pressure. And so he said, well, here, just go pee in the cup. Get that over with. And then he goes, let's just do the, let's do the blood pressure before I make you take your clothes off. Because people get, you know, anxiety over that you're sitting there in a room half naked with a guy and your underwear and he's taking your blood pressure. And that doesn't help either. So he goes up a little fast, take a couple big deep breaths. And I slowed the heart rate down right away. And he goes, all right, you're good to go. And he goes, let's just get this eye test out of the way because we discussed that. And I said, you know, every year I struggle and I go, this year I got a new set of glasses, you know, new prescription. This should be really, you know, hopefully we'll be Good. And he goes, just don't worry about it, you're gonna be fine. Let's get it done. Smoked it, right? The best eye test I've had in years. So going and getting a new fresh prescription, a new set of glasses totally helped. And I want to tell any of you that's stressing over it, whether it's your first one or you're going to renew. He said less than 110 of a percent ever fail a medical. And he said that's including people that may have heart problems or they've had other, you know, things they've had to take care of medical wise, where know they're under a doctor's care. So he always tells me that, and he's like, you know what? Very, very few people ever fell. But everybody comes in stressed out. He said, everything you're telling me is the same. And I go, well, you know, I felt like I was a lunatic. And he goes, no, you're not. He goes, everybody worries about the same stuff. And I go, it's just a medical certificate. I know I've been here before. I know you, I know what's going to happen. And the other thing I did on the way over today was I just kept trying to tell myself, just calm down, this is not a big deal. Why am I stressing over this stupid medical? And he said, you know, it's just, it is what it is. You're going to, you're going to go somewhere, a guy's going to check you out. People worry about maybe they're going to find something that they didn't know about, you know, that's transpired with their health in the last, you know, year or two, depending on what medical you're going for. So I wanted to relay that, you know, just driving over here today, I just kept thinking, just calm down. So that my blood pressure wasn't sky high when I got there. You know, drank water, had the new glasses. So I felt good about that and it was a piece of cake. Boom, we're done. And I just want to reiterate that, that he's like, hey, everybody. He says, everybody says the same three things that you basically said when you walked in the door. So it's normal. Almost nobody fails. We're not here to take your livelihood away, you know, we want to work with you, and if there's some kind of an issue, you know, we'll try to solve it. And I told him the story about the guy from when I was flying out of state. And I'm at my Full time flying job and they let me off to go to work. And then they, you know, the guy tries to film me on the medical at the end and he's like, what the heck was that guy? He's trying to mess with your livelihood, right? And I go, yeah. And I argued with him and he let me retake the I part and I passed and I was fine. He goes, yeah, we're not here to just fail you. We are here to help you get through it. And if there's some kind of an issue, we'll work through it. So put your comments down below what you think about medicals for those people that have never had one. Don't stress over it. And if you're new to this, get the medical early, right? Because we get a lot, we do get a lot of questions where people say, well, hey, you know, what about this medical certificate? What about my eyes? What about colorblindness? What about this medical problem? He specifically stated me, he said, you know, there are a lot of different medical problems that a person can have and they can still under doctor's care get a medical. He said, not many people get turned down over it. So if you're getting into flight training, you're gonna start spending the money, go ahead and go get that medical early on. Like, you know, basically as soon as you get started. So that way you'd have time if problem arises or you need to get some new glasses or whatever it is, you'd have time to try to try to take care of those issues before you need that medical later on. So again, we all stress over it, try not to stress on it. Get your medical early. That way you've got time to try to correct any problems. So hope you're enjoying the daily videos. A lot of people have been emailing me going, man, Kenny, I'm enjoying the daily videos. And you know, things like this or I just walked out, you know, of the airport. This gentleman works at laporte Airport in Northern Indiana. So you can drive or fly in to see this gentleman and it's kind of neat deal that he's located right at the airport. So anyway, put your comments down below about medical certificates or anything else flight training or ground training wise. Subscribe to the channel, click the bell. Please give us a thumbs up on this video and we shall see in the next video.
