RAF Pilot initial eyesight criteria

[Adour]

Can someone tell me if the RAF will accept someone for pilot training if they have had corrective eye surgery in the past but now have perfect unaided vision?

Thank you.

Adour

[ProfessionalStudent]

Are you talking about laser eye surgery? If you are, then no, they won't accept you.

[Adour]

Thank you for your reply, would they necessarily need to know if the treatment was carried out privately without referal from ones GP and would they discover such an operation during the intial routine medical exams?

[ProfessionalStudent]

During the selection process every candidate's eyes are scanned to see if they have had laser surgery. There is no escape and there are (as yet) no exceptions...

[Tigs2]

Adour

I dont think the referral issue will matter a hoot, but the fact that you have had corrective surgery will. Was it laser surgery? Any Opthalmist that looks at your eyes during your medical should not be doing the job if they cannot see that you have had the surgery.

[Tiger_mate]

I have just had the eye scan at OASC (for contact lenses) and the image they now have on file is amazing. The best I could compare it to is the 3d image you can get of an unborn child. (No not my eye you plonker, but the quality of imagery) The scan is also indicative of disease beyond the eye itself. It would be impossible to avoid being found out if you were to deny any opthalmic surgery.

[Adour]

All, thank you for you replies, it is greatly appreciated. In this instance I really do have a friend in need of the answer, unfortunatley this is not the one she was hoping for!

Again my thanks for your replies.

LJ

[DSAA]

I was under the impression that there were certain conditions within the eye that OASC were happy to be treated by laser surgery but were only acceptable if remedied with certain approved procedures. The list of which is very restrictive meaning you would have to contact the Med Center at Cranwell and find out exactly what you can and can't do.

I wouldn't have it done on the sly though, as others have said...they can tell if you've had the treatment or not.

[Roland Pulfrew]

I can confirm that the RAF will now allow pilots to have laser surgery......... but only after they are in and trained. The reason?

They will guide you through the process, they will only allow certain procedures (can't remember which off hand) - otherwise your med cat will be effected and only if they are undertaken by specific (I think there were 3 of them) hospitals - otherwise your med cat will be effected.

You still have to pay for it though!!

[Phil_R]

Regardless of aviation ambitions, I would be very very careful about "laser" eye surgery (most of which does involve a blade, but that's beside the point.)

My caution is based on first-hand reports of other film and TV people I know who've had it done, and who've complained about flare around bright lights and general milkiness in high contrast situations. In one case this was reportedly worse than the asymmetric flare caused by the astigmatism the procedure was intended to correct. This is presumably due to the laser-ablated optical surface not being completely smooth - we have mist filters for cameras which do exactly the same thing, but I don't think you really want that done to your eyes, especially if you're going to be looking through a HUD for the tanker, at night...

Phil

[aviate1138]

I heard that very few Laser surgeons actually have the treatment done to themselves. If true that would put me off for a start. Maybe the stress of high G force causes problems for RAF requirements.

Aviate 1138