I too was in the same boat as you! - sorry if this seems long and boring.. if you dont wanna read it then dont! But this is my tale of how i managed to get the medical, even being colour defective
Luckily i was 17 when i realised i could see the airfield lights correctly, and learned of the alternative tests that could be done to accquire a class 1.
After failing the ishihara at age 11 in a state run screening process at school, and told "you are colour blind, which rules out any career as a pilot, electrician, etc.. NEXT!" - great way to learn that your ambitions of being a pilot have just been dashed. I was completely gutted to say the least.
For the next 6yrs i farted around at school, doing the bare minimum, because i had no idea what i wanted to be when i was older. Well i knew what i wanted to be - a pilot, but was still under the impression that it just wasn't meant for me.
In my 7th form year i was faced with the task of trying to choose what course to take at university the next year.. i of course had no idea! It was very discouraging not knowing what you were going to do with your life, which i probably why i took to wagging school a lot. But for me this was probably what did it. While being illegaly absent from school i was sitting by the water front just staring at the sky, when i saw a 737 fly across the harbour and land. I sat there for hours that day and watched numerous aircraft fly past, and it was then that i realised that i still wanted to be a pilot more than anything in the world.
The next day, with little or no intent on actually attending school, i caught a bus out to the airport where i spent all day in the terminal watching the planes come and go, but also looking at their lights flash. That night while out with my girlfriend i saw a few jets fly overhead, each time stopping to attempt to make out the different coloured lights. To my amazement i was able to see them! .. for me this was something huge, it gave me a glimpse of hope at actually making it as a pilot.
Once home that night i stayed up for hours researching all i could about colour blindness, and the rules and regulations (that is how i stumbled across this site!).
This is how i learnt that the ishihara test is not the only test that can be done to prove me colour-safe.
Within a week i was at the CAA approvd optomitrist, taking the full eye test. Naturally i failed the ishihara plates, but was told that dispite this my actualy vision was better than average, and if it wasn't for my colour vision, i'd have no problems at all.
I quickly called the CAA to see where i stood, and they told me that there were only two lantern testing facilities in the country.. thankfully one in the city i lived with the Holmes Wright - B test, and the 2nd at the other end of the country, a Holmes Wright - A. The nice ladies at the CAA told me that the HW-B test was the harder of the two, with smaller colour dots.
Sorry this is getting long here - almost done!
Did the HW-B .. failed it.. office lights on and off, but passed the D-15 desaturation tests. The (not so) helpful optomitrist at this fine facility again told me i had no hopes of ever passing, and should save myself the money and give up.
Not following the dr's orders, a week later i found myself at the other end of the country (and at great expense) doing the holmes wright A lantern test, failing it in office lights, but passing it in the dark
- i dont think that the grin i had after leaving that place has faded, i still wear it today.
Passing all my other class 1 tests, i soon recieved my shiney little piece of plastic only to find an endorsement on the back for colour vision, but still announcing that i am colour safe, and no restrictions.
Not completely happy with this i took it up with CAA and had the endorsement removed (after many months of calling and talking that was)..
But here i am.. dispite all this shinanigans, doing my flight training!
Sorry for the length of this.. i guess if you didn't wanna read it ya shoulda skipped it!
laters!
SPEED!