High or low blood pressure will disqualify a pilot from fighter planes but not from commercial planes (though highly variable blood pressure will disqualify a pilot from both).
That's very attractive but I have one question: what condition that would cause either could develop in a couple of months?
I can see a case of, say, borderline hypertension climbing above the threshold; it's a common enough occurrence as (mostly) men age. But something that was completely absent from the previous flight physical?
How far apart are the flight physicals? Hyperthyroidism can develop suddenly and while it's treatable (usually with medication, sometimes with radiation) the physical side-effects don't tend to go away completely. Previously undiagnosed Graves Disease might lead to this - symptoms can be extremely minor until exacerbated by a minor illness or stress. It's more common in women than men, but still the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in men.
That could work. Question: the article suggests incidence increases substantially after age forty. This person is no older that thirty five, and possibly as young as thirty. (They're obviously in good physical shape and have no other medical issues.) Searching "age" + "epidemiology of Graves' Disease" produces no useful information.
(I'm already close to the acceptable limit for long chains of statistically improbable events.)
If you've got 6 months or more between physicals, you don't need something more exotic like Graves - you could easily have the character's blood pressure be borderline at previous physicals and then be over the limit now. While the media talks about blood pressure being related to smoking, inactivity and poor diet - and those are definitely factors - there's a strong genetic component too. My uncle runs marathons but he has high blood pressure and cholesterol since his early 30s, as do all the men on that side of the family (the women to a lesser degree). No great chain of coincidences needed, just genetic bad luck.
This. My Dad was a pilot; despite his quitting smoking, losing weight and eating a healthy diet, eventually his blood pressure crept up over the limit, and he had to stop flying. It's probably the most common reason pilots are grounded.
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I can see a case of, say, borderline hypertension climbing above the threshold; it's a common enough occurrence as (mostly) men age. But something that was completely absent from the previous flight physical?
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Once a year, until I find evidence otherwise
> ... Graves' Disease ...
That could work. Question: the article suggests incidence increases substantially after age forty. This person is no older that thirty five, and possibly as young as thirty. (They're obviously in good physical shape and have no other medical issues.) Searching "age" + "epidemiology of Graves' Disease" produces no useful information.
(I'm already close to the acceptable limit for long chains of statistically improbable events.)
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