I wanted to ask if there were any experiences or stories or if people have any information on what it’s like for someone with high functioning autism to become a pilot. People with special interests in planes sound like the type of people that would probably know a lot about the subject and I would want to be playing a plane but, there are also a lot of FAA regulations on pilot’s mental health.
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High functioning autism essentially means that they can function in society and do more than “other levels”, but may have problems like being socially awkward for example.
I just looked it up, and it is not a disqualifier, if you have HFA (high functioning autism) you can still have a chance at getting a pilots license, but it really comes down to the person. How people with HFA, or heck, anyone in general, react to certain situations is the biggest thing they look for.
In short, it just depends on the person and the severity of the autism. And in some cases, how the case is handled
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my answer to this is specifically for military pilots. if you wanna go military, specifically the US air force (idk abt other branches), you most likely cannot join with HFA. this includes being a pilot- the chances of becoming a pilot with HFA are very very slim. here’s why:
the military already doesn’t like having members with disabilities, purely because of the liability. if a person fails to communicate an important detail in flight because of being socially awkward, now the 70 something million dollar aircraft has crashed. even just small risks of that nature are risks the military deems it cannot afford to take. on top of that, military pilots have to be commissioned officers, meaning that you either have to attend a service academy, go through officer candidate school, or go through ROTC. (with the exception of warrant officers in the army).
these courses are all very rigorous in their own right, and it is designed to be extremely challenging for neurotypicals, so it will be double the work for neurodivergent individuals. this is to simulate the high stress environment of being a military pilot. their medical processing requirements are designed to pick apart every detail about your health, and any single imperfection is one you will have to heavily talk your way out of or obtain a waiver (which is tedious, difficult and rarely done.)
i do believe it may be possible for someone with HFA to be a military pilot, although they may as well have to heavily mask. i dont know much about the civilian world though.
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