Welcome to mylicensetofly.com. This is a personal web site that provides aviation information and relates my personal story of my conquest in attaining a private pilot certificate, and the obstacles I had to overcome to achieve this. I say “conquest,” because I am a Type 1 diabetic, which means I don’t produce insulin. Yes, Type 2 diabetics can also take insulin, so this same information applies to them.
The things required to obtain a medical certificate, the protocol you must follow to use it, and the steps you must take to keep it, are not things that everyone can do. You can’t just follow the steps and be automatically rewarded with a medical certificate. Besides dreams, desire, and dedication, it does require that you be able to medically maintain control of yourself in such a way that insures your safety and the safety of your passengers and everyone on the ground. And, you have to be able to document that you can do all this. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Safety is a primary goal of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Hopefully, this information will help others in my same situation who want to do the same thing.
I should point out that the United States is the only nation in the world where you can obtain an unrestricted private pilot license and take insulin. This is the reason I am not allowed to fly outside of US airspace, without another licensed pilot on board to act as “pilot in command,” or PIC. To read about a pilot with Type 1 Diabetes, Douglas Cairns, who flew around the world in 2003, check out the Diabetes World flight web site, and his book “Dare to Dream”. Dare To Dream: Flying Solo With Diabetes
Douglas Cairns points out that there are only five countries in the world that will allow people with diabetes to fly solo, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Israel. As I mentioned above, the US is the only country where on can obtain an unrestricted private pilot license and take insulin.
It is interesting to note that Canada is the only country in the world allowing commercial pilots with Type 1 to fly. There are many restrictions, however, and these fligts are multi-crew. More on that can be found here.
The Pilots with Diabetes web site aims to gather information to help enable people with insulin-dependent diabetes to fly professionally.
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