Bakersfield Pilot Won't Let Diabetes Keep Him from Conquering His Dream

Nobody puts Philip Sacco II in a corner.

In a football helmet, yes. On a hiking trail in the Sierra? Oh, yeah. In the cockpit of an airplane? Most definitely.

Despite being diagnosed at the age of 2 with Type 1 diabetes, the kind that requires regular treatment with insulin, a decade ago Sacco exploded stereotypes by playing football for the Bakersfield College Renegades and the Azusa Pacific University Cougars.

These days the 31-year-old Canadian and West Coast Sales Manager at Bakersfield-based Sierra International Machinery is still breaking through artificial limitations and barriers.

"It's always been a dream of mine to fly," Sacco said Friday morning, just minutes after landing his company plane at Bakersfield Municipal Airport in the city's southeast.

"I come from a family of pilots and aviators," he said. "Now to be able to use my love of flying to help me in business, it's huge."

A graduate of Bakersfield Christian High School, the Bakersfield native decided long ago that he would not let his diagnosis hold him back. Employing a combination of self-discipline, knowledge of the disease, cutting-edge medical technology and plain old determination, Sacco has so far been living the dream.

And with wife, Amelia, and their nearly 2-year-old daughter Alana, waiting at home, he's got a lot to live for.

"One of the first questions patients ask after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes is, 'What am I not going to be able to do?'" said Dr. Matthew Freeby, an endocrinologist at the UCLA Gonda Diabetes Center who is treating Sacco.

Patients wonder if they will still be able to play sports, or be allowed to drive a car, Freeby said.

"Philip's story shows people they can do just about anything," he said.

Sacco's mom, Marla Sacco, said her late father, Anthony Muzinich, flew more than 70 bombing missions in a B-25 during World War II. She believes her son became heir to his grandfather's passion for flight.

"Philip absolutely loves it," she said. "I just feel like it's inherited from my dad."

Indeed, he flies the skies between Montana and New Mexico and everywhere west, averaging about 120 hours flying time per year.

For decades, the Federal Aviation Administration's policy was to block insulin-treated pilots from any kind of pilot certification. Federal regulators were concerned that diabetic pilots could experience episodes of high or low blood sugar and lose control of the aircraft.

But in 1996 the federal agency began granting third-class medical certificates to private pilots who use insulin, as long as they can show they have a history of controlling their diabetes.

It takes work.

"I have to see my endocrinologist every 90 days," Sacco said. "I have to see an eye specialist once a year — but I go twice a year."

And he has to renew his pilot's license annually.

One big help is what he calls, "the pump." It's a continuous glucose monitoring device that not only checks his blood sugar levels every five minutes, it delivers insulin directly to his system as needed.

"It makes me want to stay good with my blood sugars," Sacco said. "If I want to fly."

Oh, he wants to fly. Because when the wheels lift off the tarmac, and he communes with the clouds, it's a good day.

"Every time. It's a high every time," he said of the feeling he gets flying past the Grand Tetons or across a snow-covered Grapevine.

The poetry of flight: It's as important to him as the practical benefits.

"I believe there are flyers and there are aviators," Sacco said.

"For aviators, it runs in their blood."

Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.

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