They farmed about 200 acres of mostly cotton and some maize and relied entirely on rain to yield a good harvest. Picking cotton, though, was probably not my best memory of times on the farm, but as I grew older, I gained a healthy respect for the “farm hands” that Grandpa and his two brothers hired to “pick cotton” in the fall. For an 11-year-old kid, dragging a six-foot-long sack with a strap across my shoulders that got heavier the more cotton that filled it left me “tuckered out” after a full day in the Texas heat.
In the very small town of Lakeview, Texas (no lake and no view, though!), about 8 country miles from the farm was the local cotton gin, one of the life-changing machines created by New Englander Eli Whitney in the late 1700s. A more sophisticated process in the 1960s than Eli’s patented invention in 1793, and probably far more sophisticated today, the cotton gin and the industry it supports is a global one, and the US is one of the top cotton producers in the world.
I was and still am fascinated by how things are made and how they work, and I can still remember being inside the very noisy and dusty (pre-EPA!) Lakeview gin as my great-uncle Troy, who ran the place, walked me from one end to the other, explaining the process each step of the way. And the smell! That pleasing subtle smell of the cotton fiber after being separated from the boll and after the seeds were extracted, leaving just the soft white textile falling through the machinery into the hopper below ground level to be hauled away for bailing and sale to textile processors.
The gin was also a business entity, part of a complex of the local farmers who “co-operatively” combined all their harvests, shared the profits from sales to reinvest in the gin and future seed purchases for the next crop, and also as an advocacy tool to protect and enhance the members’ interests and crop investment.
When you think about it, we in the aviation industry are a co-op of sorts. We have a shared interest in flying, be it for pure recreation or a career livelihood. We pay into the co-op through fuel taxes, ramp fees (ugh!), hangar fees, and yes, even our medical certificates. Safety is a shared responsibility for us all, and we share that mutual responsibility with the FAA, the ultimate overseer of safety under our US Department of Transportation.
Whether we hold a first class medical and fly as 121 ATP, a new student pilot, or a seasoned Part 91 BasicMed pilot, that shared “cooperative” relationship exists between us and the regulators when we talk about safety.
For many pilots who are asked by the FAA to provide some additional information before the medical can be issued, the experience may seem more like a tribunal rather than a “cooperative” interaction, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Just as we pre-flight the airplane, we all should do a similar “pre-medical evaluation” before visiting the aviation medical examiner.
The FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine and your association work together to help get the word out about “doing the homework” before the next flight physical. This is especially true if you are reporting a new medical condition, medication, or seeing a health care specialist for the first time. If that’s the case, our website is a great resource to start your homework assignment. Our information reports also link directly to the FAA’s online Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, and that is the “go-to” source for information that your AME will need for many medical conditions. Although the Guide is an AME resource, it is a public document online for anyone to prepare for an upcoming flight physical.
The FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine is working hard to be a co-op player with us pilots. As confusing as it sometimes is to understand what they want, and the time it takes to get a decision, the goal is to get safely to a “yes” for as many applicants as possible.
Sometimes the demands are challenging, depending on the complexity of your medical history, but the aeromedical staff are folks just like us, doing their job to keep the airspace safe for all of us. (Would be nice if someone at FAA HQ could figure out what all those nighttime drone sightings are about, though!)
Remember we have a full-time medical certification staff in our Pilot Information Center, and we’re a part of the “co-op” too, so give us a call if you have any questions!
Be well and fly safe!
