I thought getting in was easy

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd got a new job. That was back in early November and the job starts in May. Before that, I need a class three medical certificate, and boy, hasn't that been an ordeal. I thought just getting the job was the hard bit.

Here's what I've been through in the past three and a bit months.

In mid November I went into the city to do the actual medical. When the nurse got me to read the eye chart, I did it with my glasses on. When the doc went through the paperwork, she realised that the nurse hadn't recorded the results for without the glasses. So she got me to go and do that. Now, because I'd already seen the chart with my glasses on, I knew what the symbols I'd missed were, so I got them right this time. It appeared that my eyesight was better without glasses than it was with them.

Because CASA can be so picky, the doc decided I might have trouble if they sent in the application as it stood, so I should redo that part of the medical. Unfortunately, she decided that after I'd left and there was no way I was going to drive all the way back into the city and pay a fortune to park again, just to look at an eye chart for two minutes.

I had to go and see an ophthalmologist as part of the medical, and since they know more about eyes than the nurse, it was decided that a copy of his report sent to the doc would suffice. She'd sign it off and then send in the application to CASA.

Well, the trip to the ophthalmologist a couple of weeks later went okay, so I rang CASA a couple of weeks after that to see how my application was going.

It wasn't!

They'd received the ophthalmologist's report, but not the actual application. After making a couple of calls, it turned out the report hadn't been sent to the doc as I'd requested (twice).

Then, a couple of weeks after that was all sorted, I got a letter from CASA saying my blood sugar level was a bit high and I needed to go for a glucose tolerance test, to prove I didn't have diabetes. Actually, I got four letters from them, all of them identical. I know I don't have diabetes, as I had a GTT in July last year, but it had to be within three months. So I rang my GP and organised a referral to have the GTT done again. Once I got the results of that, and the all clear, I asked them to send the results to the doc in the city, so it could be forwarded to CASA. Another couple of weeks and my status was still showing up as "delayed" on CASA's website, so I gave them another call.

They hadn't received the results.

Another couple of calls, and it turns out the doc in the city hadn't received them from my GP.

Finally after another week and a bit, my status showed up as "pass". I was over the last hurdle at last. Now all I had to do was start getting ready to move to Melbourne.

Or so I thought.

That was almost two weeks ago and my certificate still hasn't arrived in the post, so I rang CASA this morning to see what the problem was.

It turns out it hadn't come off the printer, despite the fact that Airservices, my new employer, had paid the required fee back in November. The reason; Airservices had paid for a class three, but someone at CASA had entered it into the system as being for a class two, which is what I used to have as a private pilot.

So, it should be sorted in a couple of days and I should have my certificate some time next week.

I'll believe it when I see it.