godsrcrazy wrote:Doc can you say ILLEGAL substance? The fact is THC impairs your judgment. What amount of THC impairs your judgment who cares it is an ILLEGAL substance that is proven to impact your judgment. Why are you not arguing the fact that there are many legal prescription drugs that can cost you your medical. A licensed doctor can prescribe you medicine that the MOT doctor will pull your medical for using it.
Well, that's my whole point now, isn't it? If a "legal" drug can invalidate your medical......where is it written, specifically, that an illegal act/substance invalidates your medical? It automatically makes you guilty of any accidents/incidents you are involved in if you are using it.....you can be stopped and rear ended in your car...if you've been drinking.....it automatically becomes your fault.
Anyway, it's sure to impact our industry in years to come in a very negative way.
Not wanting to get into the whole debate thing about pot. But you guys are talking about legal and illegal drugs. What's your opinion on someone taking something like Kava the night before or the day of a flight. Perfectly legal to own and use in Canada and I know of no known regulations against taking it before a flight (other than the all in compassing ones). There are other 'herbal' stuff out there that is similar. Kava is just an example.
Any substance that changes your perception, messes with sobriety or otherwise messes with your ability to process means that you shouldn't be flying. In fact, the mere search for some substance to use that changes your perception while flying renders you unfit to fly my aircraft.
I have a hard time saying that because I use coffee...
xsbank wrote:Any substance that changes your perception, messes with sobriety or otherwise messes with your ability to process means that you shouldn't be flying. In fact, the mere search for some substance to use that changes your perception while flying renders you unfit to fly my aircraft.
I have a hard time saying that because I use coffee...
Catnip is legal. You should see my cat when he gets into catnip. I never let him drive or fly under the influence of catnip!
the simple answer, there is no test for drug impairment, no test means if there is a small amount of THC in your system, they don't know if you smoked it 5 minutes ago or 5 days ago. So, they would have to assume the worst.
I think the over-riding point is that while both pot and alcohol are impairing substances, alcohol metabolizes at a predictable and steady rate. Studies have been done and we have empirical data showing at which level impairment affects the ability to operate vehicles and after what period of time it will be cleared from your body. Based on that empirical data, we have developed rules and regulations. Pot (and many other substances) have not been sufficiently studied, does not all come from a quality controlled factory some where, and does not completely metabolize out of your system. THC remains in your fat cells until the fat cells themselves are processed out of your body. Therefore people with more fat cells and slower metabolisms will hold the THC in their system much longer. Yes, Alcohol processing varies too but the timescale is on the order of minutes/hours, not weeks/months. *https://www.healthtap.com/#topics/how-l ... -fat-cells
So for all those who say that they do it on their time off and they're fine for work, I'm calling BS. Maybe you are; maybe you aren't. Until you come up with a Health Canada and Transport Canada approved chart showing when everything gets out of your system you're not fine. I don't care if you're a pot head. I do care if you are and you're my FO.
Just ask the Doctor at your next medical how long you should wait before flying after self-medicating with illegal medications bought illegally.
I am sure any aviation medical doctor will know the correct answer to that question.
Why ask on a web site when you get to speak to a real doctor at your medical .
One thing nobody has discussed - alcohol use does have well-known parameters but it also seriously impairs your sleep. You do not reach proper REM sleep after alcohol consumption so you may turn up for work correctly observing the alcohol usage limits but you are very likely sleep-deprived. Are you still OK to fly after an evening in the bar, even if it is 12 hours after?
Just read through this thread after having finally read the report(by coincidence, my third Air Tindi accident report this year).
Almost all of this thread is simply back and forth about THC and little, if anything, about the pilot's actions that led to the accident.
There is a brief, hidden clue that appears to be in the analysis section only that no one mentioned on this thread and that the TSB did not discuss further(but should have for the findings as to causes and contributing factors).
It appears though the weather was below VFR for private operators(500 broken cloud layer). But under Canadian Aviation Regulation (CAR) subpart 602.117, traffic permitting, fixed-wing aircraft may be authorized to operate in a control zone under special VFR at visibilities between 3 sm and 1 sm, provided they remain clear of cloud.
Supposedly, he flew the entire flight visually, which could have been what he insisted on doing. But the question remains,....why did he fly into terrain? He obviously got into some low cloud or poor visibility. Why not climb? Instead, according to the report: "One minute before its impact with the west side of Pehtei Peninsula, the aircraft was at 1325 feet asl, or 500 feet agl, .......and tracking 091° true (T). Immediately before impact, altitude 1060 feet asl. So he descended, likely thinking that is was safe to descend.
The report also makes this statement without any discussion as to how they knew about this information: "When the pilot transmitted a position report 6 nm closer to Lutsel K'e than the actual position, it is possible that he believed that the shoreline of Great Slave Lake had been crossed and that open water at about 500 feet asl lay ahead."
So, it appears to me that there was a navigation error. No info could be downloaded from the GPS, so who knows if he was basing his distance on a user waypoint with incorrect coordinates or what? One needs to be paranoid about using their waypoints properly in such a situation, especially user waypoints. Frequently, there are a bunch of them stored in the GPS that were created by other pilots. Make sure they are accurate.
