Considered corrective surgery
Greetings all.
My prescription for eyeglasses used to be -5.25 each eye, but my contact lenses were only -4.5 so I might have been able to pass the Class 1 on that.
To cut a long story short, I had the Lasek procedure in January 2007 and after a short recovery period (around 6 weeks) I was, and still am able to read the line below 20/20 (6/6) on the eye charts. Not bad considering I'd previously only been able to manage the top letter (easily-ish) and second line down with an allmighty squint. I had astigmatism, which was also corrected.
At the time I had a PPL and Class 2, so called the CAA to tell them of my surgery and faxed them a report from the laser surgery place in Leeds showing I had no ill effects and wanted to make an appointment for a Class 1. They needed proof that my eyes were stable, and suitable for the class 1 and also so that they could remove the corrective lense requirement from my class 2 medical certificate. They said this wouldn't be a problem so I went for the class 1 in October.
I passed and my eyes were the least of my worries. The Doctor there (German guy) was impressed and said it was very hard to tell I'd actually been operated on, and that if I hadn't mentioned it they probably would never have noticed it! He even called another doctor to come in and have a look. He too said it was very hard to see any signs of surgery.
I'd thoroughly recommend the procedure to anyone. It costs a fair bit, but at 23 years of age I'd probably spend a lot more over my lifetime on lenses/glasses anyway, and it's nice to have perfect eye-sight now. So to anyone considering, I'd say go for it.
I was in the military at the time (British Army - they didn't like me having the surgery one bit) and the CAA seemed to be pretty anal considering that the FAA and US military are ok with it (the US military even have their own laser surgery centers for their personel). Hopefully as lasik/lasek continues to prove itself they'll ease back a little on been so restrictive.
Regards, Lew