Becoming An Aviator: A Physician’s Journey

By Mitchell A. Luchansky, M.D.

Since childhood I have had two passions: medicine and aviation. My mother used to enjoy telling the story of how I would stop in the middle of a baseball game with other children and look upward towards the sky anytime an airplane could be heard overhead. I would check out books on WWII aircraft from my junior high school library and memorize the names of the different aircraft involved in battles-whether Allied or enemy. I would be proud naming the aircraft seen on television shows about WWII to family and friends whether they were interested or not.

In high school I began to request brochures from the United States Air Force. Wouldn’t it be great being a doctor taking care of military pilots? It seemed to check all the boxes. Unfortunately, my parents were divorced, and our financial situation was not very good. I had to give up my dream of becoming a military physician. But my dream of becoming a pilot never faded. It would just have to wait a while until my finances improved. It turns out that wait ended up being about fifteen years.

I attended a local college and medical school to stay near my family and help out as best I could. After graduating medical school, I moved across the country to continue post-medical school specialty training in California. A couple of years into training the time to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot was approaching. I lived in Westwood Village, right in the heart of the UCLA campus. The nearest general aviation airport was Santa Monica Airport. One Saturday morning I drove to the airport and took a Discovery Flight in a Cessna 172. To this day, almost forty years later, I can still recall the feeling in the pit of my stomach when taking off straight towards the Pacific Ocean. I’m sure I had a big silly grin on my face. I was so excited. I felt exhilarated. I had finally done it. I was flying an airplane.

While completing my last year of medical training in Los Angeles, I continued my flight training to pursue a private pilot license. Due to training at an airport just north of LAX, one of the busiest airports in the country, I had the opportunity to hone skills on the radio and become familiar with how to communicate with air traffic controllers in a busy aviation environment. I quickly learned the importance of keeping my eyes out of the cockpit to “see and avoid”. The first time taking off from Santa Monica Airport towards the ocean and seeing a huge commercial airliner to my left taking off from LAX was fascinating and scary. After about six months of flight training, I earned my private pilot license and became a certified pilot. I was now a physician and a pilot.

After completing my specialty medical training in Los Angeles, I moved back to the East Coast to open a medical practice near my family. I joined a flying club at a nearby general aviation airport to be among other aviation enthusiasts and have an opportunity to fly several different types of fixed-wing aircraft. I enlisted in the United States Air Force Reserves as a flight surgeon based at Andrews AFB (now Joint Base Andrews). I finally got my chance to take care of military pilots! During Desert Storm my medical unit was deployed to a WWII RAF hangar at Upper Heyford, England.

Over the years I have added a commercial pilot license, instrument rating, and even a rotorcraft-helicopter rating, along with becoming a CFII in fixed-wing and helicopter. For many years I owned a Robinson R44 helicopter and flew over much of our beautiful country at 1200 feet AGL!

Over the past several years I have combined my passion for medicine and aviation and opened a private practice office at Flagler Executive Airport in Palm Coast, FL as a Senior AME, HIMS AME, and HIMS Psychiatrist. My dream is complete.