Long Form
Flight Physical is similiar to alien abduction...
There is the long form and short form (any help on the whens/whys for these), and what I do know is us newbies need a Long form.
Mine started 6am and I was going here and there getting poked and prodded until around 4pm. Why so long in my particular case? There were about 10+ active Navy guys getting various renewals for their flight physicals. If not so many people are going at the same time, I'm sure its a little quicker.
So in a nutshell you've got the following for a Long Form:
- Dental
- Bloodwork & Piss n'a Cup
- Ears
- Eyes
- Basic Vitals & Measurements
- EKG
- X-Ray
- Standard Physical
The order is sometimes mixed up so that the wait isn't too long, the above is only my particular order that I was given.
EYES- yeah man this was the fun one. I was thinking I'd do eyes then quickly buzz over and get my ears checked (note: attempting to bypass the order given to you is risky-hahah)... not quite. They have the normal stuff, checking your eyes, and even blow bursts of air to check for Glaucoma.. but the COOL? part is the eye drops. Yeah man they dilate your pupils so that a doc can look INTO them. I hadn't had this done before, its a pretty cool trip- and one that you won't need a waiver for.
Bring sunglasses! They give you these sped looking paper shades , so at lunch the Sgt and I went over to the exchange and picked up some cheapo shades :icon_smil . It's annoying at times, but pretty trippy.
EARS - ears is a good time! You're sealed up in a sound proof room- with a noisy fan (in my case) hahah go figure. Its the whole thing about listening for a sound, then pressing a button when you hear one. Trust me, by the end, you'll be imagining sounds at such a high decible/quiet volume that you'll enter a coma-like trance. Who thought flight phys could be so much fun! :sleep_125
EKG - Okay so if you haven't had one before, and I couldn't remember the last time I had one.. EKG's are a bit touchy. How you breath effects the results, if you laugh, if you talk, if you sleep... yeah so I did most of those things minus the sleeping. Don't. You just need to be 'normal' or as close to normal as you can get. Nice easy steady breathing, concentrate on a few words (honor courage committment worked nicely), and just "BE" for a few minutes. Oh and for us bad boys with Austin Powers chest hair, don't be suprised if you get up close and personal with the Chief and out comes a bic razor. Additionally- as you lay there don't worry about the "stickies" coming off as you breath, just go it all normal.
Preparation Like its said in a lot of other posts, you either pass or you don't, I agree- but there are a few tips that would have saved me a few repetes. If you're gonna work out the day before, drink ENOUGH water to replenish your body. There's no need to avoid 'water weight' etc, because if you're dehydrated your piss test will give funky results. So drink up hartily me-lads! Also eat a regular meal for dinner before hand- any sort of low carb diets will also throw off the test. Yeah, and bring sunglasses! :icon_smil
All in all man its a long day, but I rationalized it by thinking about all the attention put on me that day. I mean they INVEST all this time in effort in you already, it feels good.
