Morning All,
Wondering if anyone could help. In a bit of a sticky situation with my medical situation through my own fault. Wanted to be a pilot since I can remember but failed an ishihara when I was in primary school and ever since I was advised to ask for a lantern test when the day of my medical cane. Went for a class 2 initial back in 2012, didn’t want anything to do with the ishihara and asked for a lantern test (even though I acknowledge the CAA do not recognise it) to which I passed flying colours. The AME advised me if I was not willing to do the ishihara I would need to do the CAD test at the CAA. Off I walked with a restriction on my medical just because I didn’t want to do the ishihara - worst mistake I’ve ever made.
Fast forward a 2 years (and typical me leaving everything to the last minute) I book a CAD test at the CAA in 2014 just before my training starts at university. I must stress here that the CAD test is quite possibly the worst experience I have ever had. So much pressure, anxiety and angst took its toll and within a minute I experienced eye pain and headaches which made me (all but) quit the test. I was issued a fail on my CAA medical records with a score of nearly double what the pass mark is (no point doing a retest because of this as scores get averaged).
Fast forward 3.5 years and I graduate from (a different) university with a back up plan in mind in case there is no way around this issue. In April 2017 I accompany a parent to the opticians and ask to do an Ishihara test at the end of the appointment as a bit of fun. Would you believe I pass the test without error. I immediately book in for a class 2 at East Midlands, we conduct the ishihara and I pass with no errors again. At this point I’m ecstatic thinking my dream career is back on.... the CAA refuse issue me an unrestricted class 2 certificate 3 days later because of those ‘false’ CAD results.
I have since spent my time researching this and although I understand the CAA’s stance on this as they have evidence of a failed colour vision test, I meet the acceptable means of compliance that EASA have set. I recently emailed the CAA but they have not got back to me.
Has anyone had an experience like this? If I was to do a c1 initial and pass the ishihara (again) would the CAA still refuse to issue me a certificate? Would I be best off travelling to another EASA member state and doing my class 1 initial over there and trying to convert it?
Thanks in advance