Apologies for the slowing down of the posts on the thread: A lot is happening in the direct communication space between the CVDPA directors and the CASA hierarchy, in particular the Director, Pip Spence.
I am working through the material that has come to me from the FOI section of CASA. It is disgracefully inadequate in that the lead players who were invited by CASA to help formulate their crusade, the identities of these individuals, as well as their qualifications that one would expect to be told, have been totally redacted (blacked out!).
In due course, we will be publishing the entire response obtained through FOI, but in the meantime, I intend to highlight some of the perverse logic promulgated by CASA to justify its equally perverse conclusions.
Example 1. CASA states: "There is a proposition that the absence of air accidents among CVD pilots could well be due to the fact that there ARE restrictions by way of the Colour Vision Standard.
Then there appears this gem, copied verbatim:
"Safety concerns:
For colour vision deficient pilots, while able to pass OCVA, the colour cues within and outside the cockpit (or flight deck) are vital during the critical phases of flight. During an emergency, with heightened stress levels, the reaction time can become the determining factor between safety and accident. This human factor aspect cannot solely be defined by medical certification, instead has a direct bearing on safe operations, in turn safety of air navigation.
1.
Deutan or Protan CVD defect is a lifelong disability with potential safety impacts:
i.
Reduced or absent ability to assess glide slope by reference to colour cues
Reduced or absent ability to identify and interpret colour cure as used in instrument landing such as PAPI and VASIS and where no redundancy systems can be employed
Reduced or absent ability to identify and interpret colour cues used at airports, including but not limited to, aerodrome markings, holding points runway lighting, marked obstructions, rotating beacons on ground vehicles and precision guidance systems
Reduced or absent ability to identify and interpret colour cues used in cockpit instrument including but not limited to electronic weather displays, indicator and warning systems" End of Quote
I offer you this. There have been three landmark AAT cases since the mid-1980s, and between them, each and every point made in the preceding paragraphs was rejected by the AAT. It is nothing more than pure sophistry, intended to deceive and blind the gullible observers of the debate. We have records of hundreds of pilots with severe colour vision defects that pass and keep on passing every operational test put to them, and I mean BIG TIME! These folk fly every conceivable modern RPT aircraft, and that's just the Aussie part of the sample. In the USA, no one cares to keep the exact figures, but there are thousands of severe CVD pilots representing many thousands of accumulated flight hours performed in safety, and thousands of check and training examinations.
More in a day or two.
Last edited by Arthur Pape; 28th Nov 2023 at 00:14.
Reason: grammatical