Is it possible to be an aerobatic pilot with bipolar?

[Jim Logajan]

I hope to be an aerobatic pilot (preferably flying Extra 300's), but I suffer from Bipolar Disorder and have a few questions as to the effect this will have. First and foremost: Do I even have a chance? If so, what hoops will I have to jump through? What are my odds of getting a special issuance for a 3rd class medical?

You can bypass the whole medical issue by flying an ultralight designed for aerobatics. Were I in your position and had that desire, I'd do this:

1. Get training in an LSA that is most like the aerobatic ultralight(s) that I'd want to be flying. So long as no solo is desired in the LSA, no need even for a student pilot certificate.
2. Acquire aerobatic capable ultralight, attach a ballistic parachute (doesn't count against the weight limit, fortunately) and maybe even wear one (no parachute requirements in ultralight regs, but a good idea.)
3. Go practice flying in aerobatics in the ultralight, working one's way up in difficulty.

Utralights are supposed to be small enough and flown in areas where if you screw up with a fatal error, you should be the only fatality. You can go knock yourself out - or worse.

Example:

 

[WernerV]

I hope to be an aerobatic pilot (preferably flying Extra 300's), but I suffer from Bipolar Disorder and have a few questions as to the effect this will have. First and foremost: Do I even have a chance? If so, what hoops will I have to jump through? What are my odds of getting a special issuance for a 3rd class medical?

I haven't had any serious episodes except for in the 4th grade when I was admitted to a mental hospital for attempted suicide, but that wasn't the bipolar so much as extreme side effects to a medication I was on. I am now on a different medication and not showing any symptoms. Most don't even know I have bipolar, with the exception of those I've told.


Update: Thank you all for your comments, with the exception of some (i.e. flyingriki. That hurt.). This has been a big help. I just wanted to clarify a few things: When I said hadn’t had any “serious episodes”, I meant that I hadn’t had any episodes that would be on record. And while it is true that my disorder did correlate to some “overt actions”, as it were, I feel this is largely a special case, due to my young age at the time of diagnosis (I was diagnosed at 8). That is to say, I had tantrums, but who didn’t when they were little? All the bipolar served to do is perhaps increase the frequency of said tantrums and have them continue occurring until I was of a slightly older age, but now that I am older I am experiencing no symptoms whatsoever, let alone those strong enough to prompt the “overt actions” mentioned in FAA policy. I’m wondering if the FAA would overlook the suicide attempt, on account of it being caused by bad medication (the drug was Prozac, Google it for more info), and not something that would ever have happened ordinarily, even if the bipolar had gone untreated (and even then it was pretty half-assed—I sort of set things up so that I could commit suicide and then thought the better of it).