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INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MILITARY FLIGHT SURGEON
PILOTS IAMFSP NEWSLETTER WINTER 2003
Lt Col Mark Adams, US Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Attn MCMR UAD, PO Box 620577, Ft Rucker, AL 36362-0577 |
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OFFICERS |
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President Vice President Internet Wizard Treasurer Membership Newsletter
Editor |
Dwight Holland Dave Hiland Harry Hoffman Ed Park Pat Lowry Kathryn Hughes |
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Greetings to all from snowy Virginia where the mountains now are
looking skiable. I have been very
pleased with most officers contributions since the last newsletter. Harry Hoffman has evaluated our needs and
decided upon a new approach to our website.
Harry spends untold hours working and supporting our website, and he
could use some help. Please read his
message in this Newsletter carefully.
Pete Wechgelaer is our program chair this year, and with support from
CAPTs Hiland, Busch from the Navy, and Cols Travis and Brown on the USAF side,
we have created a very interesting program of 11 papers in 2 sessions. And, as a bonus, new member Maj Jeff
Armentrout and I added a Fatigue Session to the IAMFSP program offerings. Thanks to Pete for his excellent, hard work,
and to Jeff for carrying the second ball.
Due to a loss in my family, CAPT Hiland kept a good eye on the Mid-year
AsMA activities, and really helped us by representing us on the Scientific
Program Committee. He also gave our
report to the AsMA Council. As the VP,
Dave serves on the AsMA Nominations Committee, so if you have any persons you
want nominated to an AsMA Office, please let Dave know. The Nominations Committee duty is quite
interesting, as I served in that role for the past two years myself. Because we had an advocate on the
Nominations Committee, we now have a senior IAMFSP member as an AsMA Executive
Vice President (Michael Bagshaw), whom I hope will be a nominee for AsMA
President in the near future.
Just recently, I have heard from several members and wish to pass on a
few notes. Tomas Kostrouch of the Czech
Republic sends all his greetings, and is looking to add to his MIG collection
(ask him to show you pictures the next time you see him). He is still flying as a civilian, and is in
reserve status. Tomaz Kozelj has continued in leadership roles in the rather
new Slovenian Aerospace Medical Association, and Andy Davenport had to step out
of an Air guard F-16 due to an engine problem recently. Glad to hear he is OK.
Now, a few words about some rather new initiatives. We have divided the Secretary/Treas job into
a Corresponding Secretary (Ed Park: helps with Website materials), Kathy Hughes
(our Membership Chair: send her your address/email updates to her at n143mb@earthlink.net), and the Treasurer
Pat Lowry at Patrick.Lowry@RANDOLPH.AF.MIL. This functional realignment, should enable
us to have a better web presence, and keep better track of our members. But, please, alot of this is up to you, to
update your member data with Kathy, and she will pass it on to Harry, Ed, and
our Newsletter Editor Mark Adams.
Speaking of the good doctor Adams, he has done a really good job keeping
us on schedule with our newsletters, and I appreciate that!
Please send Mark Adams any NEWS OF MEMBERS you wish to have published
in the next Newsletter at Mark.Adams@se.amedd.army.mil.
Another new initiative is the IAMFSP virtual Ski Team. For all of you downhill skiers out there,
NASTAR is a recreational format and we now have a Team set up in the NASTAR
computer. Go to www.nastar.com and you can find your way to:
http://www.nastar.com/index.jsp?pagename=teamracing.
We must have 6 or more members run the ski gates, record their scores,
and then state in their personal profiles that they wish to be a part of the
IAMFSP "Friends/Family" Ski Team when you sign up to race and get
your race ID. Advice:- sign up to race
by computer BEFORE you get to the ski area, then you will not have any hassles
on race day getting the race ID, etc done.
It will only take about 15 total mins to sign up and get into the
system, even if you have never done it before.
You may race anywhere that there is a NASTAR race course, and when your
scores are recorded on the website, if you ask, they will be added to our
IAMFSP Ski Team results. Using a
formula (scheme) you may see explained on the NASTAR website, our team is then
ranked against others all over North America.
So, as you are skiing this winter, run a few gates for the IAMFSP group,
and if you have a good run or two, it will help our virtual ski team. My advice:- wear a helmet if you race. I smacked my head pretty hard last season in
my first real "Rookie" Year of racing, and have been a little goofy
ever since. We are the FIRST AsMA Ski
Team, so let's get out there and make some good turns! I am looking for a mechanism to build a little
more camaraderie during the slow winter months for this organization, and so we
are going to give this virtual race team a try.
If you earn a NASTAR Medal during the season, feel free to write the
group and let us know how things are going.
Well, it's time to close.
IAMFSP has made some good strides this year, and I look very much to the
future as we continue on this very interesting journey together.
Best wishes to all
during this Holiday Season.
Dwight
Dwight Holland
President IAMFSP
VICE
PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
The Aerospace Medical Association Scientific Program Committee
meeting went well. There were over 800
abstracts submitted for the Anchorage meeting.
We have two IAMFSP panels and they are tentatively scheduled on Tuesday
from 2:00 P.M to 5:30 P.M. In addition
to those panels, Dwight Holland has a “Fatigue” panel slated for Wednesday at
10:30 A.M.
My summary and comments on some of the Council topics are as follows:
Web Site: The Aerospace Medical Association is in the process of updating the home office web site. The goal is to allow the home office and possibly association members to make content changes. The council has a contractor working on this project and delivery date of a test site is about May 04. The IAMFSP members discussed this same issue during the business meeting last May. Harry Hoffman has identified a web site host that will enable our Secretary and Treasurer to make content changes to the IAMFSP site. Hopefully we can make this happen by the first of the year. We will need the members to send current information to the IAMFSP Secretary.
Membership: Association membership has declined during the last three years. The membership committee has several strategies. The focus is to recruit new members and to reactivate lapsed members. Since our IAMFSP membership is only 105 to 110, we are just above the minimum to maintain our Constituent status. As a small group, we must sell the new Flight Specialists or “Dual Designators”, as we call them in the U.S. Navy, on the benefits of belonging to the Aerospace Medical Association and IAMFSP. We also need to stay connected with lapsed members.
Budget Report: The association is basically in the “black”. Someone commented that adding new members would help further improve the finances. Annual membership dues are going up by $10.00.
Editor Report: The association is planning to develop a searchable CD that will contain all the journal articles from the beginning.
Future Scientific Program Meetings: The 2008 meeting will be in Boston.
Age 60 Rule: The Aviation Safety Committee presented the results of their research regarding the “Age 60 Rule”. The council accepted a resolution that there is insufficient evidence to support restricting pilot operations based on age alone. This will be stated in a future “Blue” journal. Some of you old timers may be interested in dusting off your Delta Airlines application.
Award Nominations: The deadline for submitting nominations is 15 December. That date is upon us. I recommend that as a routine practice, IAMFSP should identify a deserving member and make sure that a nomination is submitted. We can discuss how to do this during our next business meeting.
SSRI Use in Pilots: The council accepted a recommendation for a study of SSRI use in pilots.
Automatic Ground and Collision Avoidance Systems: The council rejected a proposal for the association to adopt a resolution that all military aircraft must have automatic ground and collision avoidance systems. I, along with the majority of the council members, argued against accepting this resolution.
Communications Committee: Scott Shappell requested that each constituent organization recommend a member for the communications committee. My understanding is that this committee will be involved in marketing and will assist with recruiting members. Please contact Dwight Holland or me if you are interested.
The next Council meeting will be on May 2, 2004 in Anchorage. We want to get our web site updated well before then. Please send your latest information for the site to the Secretary. The web site should be a place where your current aeromedical issues, concerns, or documents could be posted and information could be readily shared. Regarding our own membership, please encourage your new “Military Flight Specialist Pilots” to join IAMFSP and also keep your own membership current.
Dave Hiland, CAPT, MC,
USN
Vice President, IAMFSP
Navy Environmental
Health Center
620 John Paul Jones Cir,
Ste 1100
Portsmouth, VA
23708-2103
SECRETARY
REPORT
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Greetings all. If you celebrate the holidays around this time of year, I wish you all a wonderful holiday season.
Dwight has redefined the division of secretarial responsibilities between Kathy Hughes and me. Henceforth, Kathy is responsible for maintaining the membership roster in an up-to-date fashion and I will attend to the membership information on our IAMFSP web site, magnificently maintained by our webmaster, Harry Hoffman. As Harry has indicated, for the past few months we have been discussing moving the web site to a new host and upgrading its functionality, to include our own domain name.
I need everyone to contact me with updates to information on the site that pertains to you. I will be sending out email solicitations to all and using the Yahoogroup mailing list to periodically broadcast reminders. Meanwhile, please take a look at the current site to discern whether the information posted reflects today’s reality. As Dave Hiland has stated above, we hope to have the new version of the IAMFSP web site in place by the end of December. Along with the other officers, I view the web site as a valuable communication medium for use both within our organization and to convey information about us to the outside world.
Those of you who attended the business meeting last May will recall that Dwight discussed the establishment of an Endowment Fund for covering, or at least defraying, organization expenses and to preempt the need to raise membership rates. This is in progress and we are seeking the appropriate status so that contributions can be fully “tax deductible” (at least, under US tax law). I will certainly be among the first to make my own contribution to our organization. I encourage the rest of you to follow suit. More info will be forthcoming.
On another note, though unrelated to IAMFSP business, if you have been among the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the Mall in Washington, DC you know how impressive this Smithsonian Institution facility is. A new satellite facility of NASM, The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, officially opens on December 15, 2003 at the Dulles International Airport just west of the city. This Center will house the Museum’s large aircraft collection and items from the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility located in Suitland, MD, which will eventually also relocate to the Udvar-Hazy Center. I will be attending a special open house for “military aviation veterans” on December 9, and perhaps have some pictures to add to the newsletter if it hasn’t already been disseminated by that time.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/
http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/garber/
Ed
edwin[DOT]park[AT]navy[DOT]mil
The IAMFSP membership numbers haven’t changed much in the past six months, we hold steady at 130. This may be a bit high, my roster includes members that may not still be active. My goal is to keep our database as up to date as possible, which I can only do with your input. With any moves (and I know we are a nomadic group) please let me know your new address, email and phone number. You can send this info to me at
N143mb@earthlink.net or through our new website once Harry has it up and running. He is doing a wonderful job, and we appreciated all his hard work!
On a more personal level, I am finally a combat-ready A-10 pilot. I am still active duty Air Force, but am lucky enough to fly with the Boise ANG, the 190th Fighter Squadron “Skullbangers”. This squadron most recently returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom, where they were deployed for almost six months. They were instrumental in developing the employment plan the A-10’s used in the war, and I am sure the mission success has extended the life of this incredible airplane. On the medical side of the house, I get to see patients in clinic (in exchange for flying hours!) and I will begin working with the Air Expeditionary Force Battlelab located at Mountain Home Air Force Base. The AEF Battlelab is one of 7 in the Air Force charged with developing and applying military and commercial off-the-shelf products to our mission. The AEF Battlelab has a medical liaison role which I will fill, the potential is limited only by imagination.
I look forward to seeing you all in May, and until that please stay actively involved with IAMFSP. Harry’s new website will allow us to continue to be an active, unique part of AsMA.
Kathy Hughes
"No Report
Provided"
Season’s Greetings to all. Issues related to the IAMFSP website have gotten a lot of attention recently. The focus has been ‘upgrading’ the website. To some, this means simply getting rid of the banner that pops up on the free Geocities website we have been using for several years. To others this means fancy menus, artwork, password-protected pages, and more. Some members obviously have a deep interest in the appearance of our website. Others have probably never even visited the site.
If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years while maintaining several sites and e-mail lists, it’s that it is impossible to make everyone happy 100% of the time. Consequently, the choices regarding the website are going to have to be a compromise between the ideal and the practical. My suggestion is to use the IAMFSP Yahoogroup (more below) for discussion of issues or suggestions regarding the website.
As of this writing, IAMFSP has acquired its own domain name: IAMFSP.net
The webhost will – for the time being – continue to be Geocities at a cost of $11.95 per month (we were able to have the $25 setup fees waived, fortunately). There are cheaper webhost alternatives that offer many more features, but this is the best compromise choice for now. Websites are portable and can be moved to another webhosting site in the future if we choose.
For those of you who have some internet savvy, the URL (address) of the new site can be easily ascertained from the domain name and you can probably find your way there. The new site is “under construction”, however, and will probably not be ready for at least a month while I update each page manually. This is a LOT of work, so please be patient.
Meanwhile, the ‘official’ IAMFSP site remains:
http://www.geocities.com/iamfsp/index.html
As soon as the ‘new’ site is ready for public viewing, I will announce it via the IAMFSP Yahoogroup and put a forwarding link up at the old site.
Regarding our Yahoogroup: This e-mail list has been in existence since September 1998. The original purpose was (and remains) to provide a means of communication among IAMFSP members so that we can actually accomplish things between the annual meetings at AsMA. The usage and effectiveness of the group has waxed and waned over the years. Like any other ‘tool’ it is only effective if used.
One effective use of the IAMFSP Yahoogroup is the electronic distribution of the newsletter. The cash savings to the treasury as opposed to US Mail distribution is significant. One of the continuing problems with this has been that many of our subscriber members change e-mail and mailing addresses (particularly active duty military) frequently, and don’t update this information with IAMFSP. If we don’t have current information on you, we obviously can’t communicate with you.
Dwight Holland, has proposed a solution for this with the split of secretarial duties into individual ‘corresponding’ and ‘recording’ officer positions (please see the President’s column for more details).
Independently of other processes, here is how you can keep your e-mail address current on the IAMFSP Yahoogroup:
OR
PLEASE NOTE that you must use only the individual e-mail account you want subscribed or unsubscribed for the above e-mail commands to work!
Once subscribed, the address for contacting all other subscribers to the IAMFSP Yahoogroup is: IAMFSP@yahoogroups.com.
I can’t over-emphasize the advantages of using the IAMFSP Yahoogroup for communication among ourselves. A single e-mail to the group announcing any change of address, for example, will inform me, the other officers, and your colleagues where you are or what you are doing.
Best Wishes and Happy Holidays.
Harry Hoffman, MD, MPH
Webmaster/Yahoogroup Moderator
An additional note from Harry
Anyone
subscribed to the group can control their subscription(s) by simple e-mail
commands. The command must be
sent from the e-mail address you want affected. The e-mails don't need a subject line or a message body - it's
the address they are sent to that counts:
To illustrate - in this case of Les
Folio, Les can send an e-mail from his "les@lesfolio.com" address
to: IAMFSP-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. This will unsubscribe that e-mail
address. He can then subscribe his
pentagon account by sending an e-mail from
"les.folio@pentagon.af.mil" to:
IAMFSP-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. There are several other e-mail commands that
can be used to modify subscriptions (see below). I recommend you either save or print out these commands for
future reference. They apply to any
Yahoogroup you may subscribe to.
E-Mail
Commands for Yahoogroups (Please
print and save this for future reference).
You
may use e-mail commands to manage your subscriptioninstead of having to go to
the website. Note that
eachcommand must be sent FROM THE ACCOUNT YOU WANT AFFECTED. The address is the command (the subject and
message body are blank).
To join a group, send a blank message
to: groupname-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To
unsubscribe from a group, send a blank message to:
groupname-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
To
post a message to a group, send your message to: groupname@yahoogroups.com
To
post a message to a group's owners and moderators, send a message to:
groupname-owner@yahoogroups.com
To
put your email message delivery on hold for a group, (ie: for vacation hold)
send a blank message to: groupname-nomail@yahoogroups.com
To
change your subscription to daily digest mode, send a blank message to:
groupname-digest@yahoogroups.com
To
change your subscription to individual emails, send a blank message to:
groupname-normal@yahoogroups.com
To
receive general help information, send a blank message to:
groupname-help@yahoogroups.com
Please
Note: Make sure to
replace "groupname" in the above commands with the actual name of the
group (e.g., IAMFSP-subscribe@yahoogroups.com).
Best Wishes,
Harry
Hoffman, MD, MPH
Sacramento/Tahoe
USA
AsMA: Anchorage 2004
Two sessions have been accepted with the provisional programme outlined below. No doubt there will be some adjustments before the conference
Session 1. Airframe specific talks
Mike
Simmons/Pete Demitry et al-- F-15
John Mansueti et al-- F-18
Jeff Armentrout et al-- C-5 Avionics Modernization Program and Ops(AMP)
Kathy Hughes et al-- A-10
Ed Park et al-- P-3/MMA possibilities
Session 2. (Program Specific talks limited to 10 mins under this format)
Braithwaite/Cain/Adams-- British Army Report on helo/programs of their choice
Mapes/Lowery-- Stuff going on at Randolph, or specific talk of interest
Jan Linder-- Gripen/Viggen work, research or studies-- include an overview of
Swedish Programs
Holland/O'Connor-- Update on the Crew Systems curriculum at the Navy Test Pilot
School
Travis/Brown et al-- USAF Human-Systems Center program and updates
Butsch/Hiland/Baker/Rupert et al-- USN "hot topics" of interest and
or detailed updates (might include recent vibrotactile work if there is enough
there to report)
In the Navy program as of now we
have 14 jet pilots, 2 turboprop pilots, 7 helo pilots and 3 jet RIOs of which
all are MC (medical corps FS docs) except 2 who are MSC (medical service
corps-physiologists). Among the ranks
of the present program, our aviators, in addition to being winged Naval flight
surgeons/physiologists also represent certification in specialties to include:
Aerospace Medicine, Ophthalmology, OB/GYN, Family Practice, Occupational
Medicine, AMSO, JAG (law) and even a couple of Test Pilot School
Graduates. Duty stations are
represented ranging from fleet aircraft carrier flying to VX R&D to
training squadrons.
A formal selection board was held in
November of this year. Unfortunately,
because of the non-availability of initial training quotas, we were unable this
particular year to secure any dedicated "de novo" training slots for
our outstanding battery of Navy flight surgeon applicants. And as such, none were offered. As an ongoing process, and thanks in part to
the dedicated support and sponsorship of those at BUMED and PERS, we remain
confident that every consideration will be given when the possibility of
training a brand new AMDD presents itself.
Overall, our program is very healthy and prosperous comparatively
speaking in reviewing our 9 decades history.
Submitted by CAPT Bill Busch, Chairman, U.S. Navy Aeromedical Dual Dewignator Program
Very little has changed since the last newsletter and all “SAMs” are fit, well and gainfully employed. Claire Jackson should be congratulated on becoming the most recent SAM to be awarded wings. This brings the total number of SAMs, currently serving in both the active and reserve roles, to eleven with two more due to start flying training in the next year or so. The specialty, like that our U.S.Navy counterparts above, is very healthy. We wish Paul Cain best wishes for a safe return next year from his tour in the Middle East.
Congratulations to Shepard Stone
(shepard.stone@yale.edu) on his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and his
appointment as State Aviation Medicine Officer for the Connecticut Army
National Guard.
FINALLY
I have
continued the bias towards British English, but have not tinkered too much with
individual submissions. The next
edition will be out in the spring in time to give all members an update on the
proposals for AsMA. So please have your
submissions to me before the end of March if possible.
This
year in aviation has been one of both profound tragedy, with the loss of the
shuttle Columbia, and also one of celebration of the centenary of the Wright
Brothers’ remarkable achievement. It
has also been a year in which another remarkable aviation achievement flew for
the last time. I was privileged enough
to fly on Concorde about a week before her last ever flight; an unforgettable
experience. I hope you will all forgive
the indulgence of including the photograph below.
I hope you all
have a Happy Festive Season.
Please send
newsletter submissions as a Word document attached to your email in Times New
Roman, 12 point and this will help speed things up at my end. Many thanks.
Mark Adams
Editor