Colour Vision and Class 1
Hi,
(pls accept my apols in advance, this is a long post ! - only just found this site and have 24 years of frustration to vent !)
I am now 37 and a computer engineer (before you think I'm a FE !) and have desperately wanted to fly commercially since early childhood. At 13 I had a routine eye test and failed the Ishihara plates, was told by the optician that flying was OUT. Wrote to BA, they confirmed I would not be able to fly. I remember that day as if it were yesterday... my dreams crushed in an instant.
Foolishly, I accepted the optician's and particularly BA's word as gospel and spent the following 10 years growing up as a bitter and rather lost soul, gazing sadly at the trails of the jets on UG1 from my dead-end office job window.
At 26, when looking out of my window on a holiday flight turning base, I saw the runway lights and realised I could see all of the colours fine, and decided to question my diagnosis on my return. Through a series of exchanges with the CAA, I established that an applicant can fail the Ishihara but still get a Class 1 if the lantern test was passed. My hopes renewed, I sat the Giles-Archer (I think) at Cardiff Eye Hospital and to my delight, passed.
My dreams were soon crushed again when I quickly amassed a file full of 'sorry, but you're too old for sponsorship' letters from every UK airline, and my subsequent pleas to the Chairmen of each were all in vain.
However, this time, I decided to go to Gatwick and take the definitive test at the CAA. I was told by the ...LOCUM... (the 'proper' AME was unavailable) that my acuity was exceptional adding that 'only about one in 2000 have vision that sharp'. Nice, but not the issue ! - I passed the Farnsworth D15, failed the Ishihara, failed the lantern test under office lighting, and only *just* failed it in the dark.
The guy seemed to have difficulties in operating the lantern and I strongly suspect that in his inexperience, he used the smallest aperture setting, as the lights were so minute it was hard to see ANY light, never mind differentiate the colour ! However, it was only much later that I discovered that the 'medium' aperture is supposed to be used, and at the time it seemed rather academic as there was no way I could raise the money to get trained.
I also remember vividly, sitting outside the CAA building on a wooden bench in a small garden area, and trying to hide my tears from passers-by, and wondering how many others had sat here with their dreams crushed too. I took some solace in the fact that at least I wasn't a line pilot who'd just had his career erased.
Since then, I have been lucky enough to get 3hrs in BA's 1-11 sim at Cranebank (gratis, after I wrote them my life-story !) AND 1hr in Britannia's 767 sim at Luton (WOW!), and occasionally pop over to my local airfield (wave when you take the turn at SWANY !) for the odd '20 min trial lesson'.
Sorry - I'm turning this into War & Peace, so I'll get to the point.. !
I have read with great interest all the posts on Colour Vision and would love to hear from anyone who has any interest in the colour vision / flying area.
There may still be a chance for me to pass a lantern test - though I gather it's now 'Nagel's Anomalascope' (?) (anyone taken a colour test at the CAA recently ?), but it would take me too long to get the cash together to get to CPL/IR and then, I doubt my chances of getting a job aged over 40 with the bare minimum of hours. (especially as the nice CAA would endorse my licence 'Colour Defective - Safe', even if I did pass the lantern / Niggle's Anomolowotsit)
I still dream of being able to fly, and would be in heaven if I could drive even an old Twin Otter on the mail run, but I guess I should stop torturing myself and stick to taking my (simulated !) 767 into LHR in pea-soupers with one engine out !
Thanks for reading this far !
Cheers Guys (& Gals).
Kev.