The following is from a letter I received recently from the Safety Regulation Group of the Medical Division in the CAA.
May I remind you, I failed because I was +3.0 in one eye and +3.5 in the other. Just one level out!!
"As you know, the current JAR does not permit Class 1 certification for applicants who have hypermetropia greater than 3 dioptres, and you fall into this group. However, the UK CAA has been arguing in the Medical Sub-Committee (MSC) of the JAA for relaxation of this requirement. As you may be aware, the visual requirements for professional pilots are controversial and individual JAA member states have very firm, and differing views on the subject. As a result, it has, unfortunately, taken the MSC rather longer than expected to reach a decision.
We believe that the requirements will eventually be relaxed to plus 5 dioptres but, for the moment, it remains at plus 3. I am therefore writing to apologise for being unable to bring you some good news with respect to your Class 1 application and to advise you of the current situation. I would suggest that you keep an eye on our web site; as soon as the Medical Sub-Committee has formally agreed its position and we are able to (hopefully) move to the more relaxed standard we will announce this on our web page. If you do not have access to the internet, please keep in contact by telephone (may I suggest every six months or so) to see what the latest situation is."