I spoke to someone from CASA licensing/medicals earlier on the phone, albeit an office person not a specialist.
They told me that I cannot get an ATPL with this restriction.
I find that totally absurd. In a time when there is a pilot shortage and decent candidates are being refused even though they can do the job safely with a medical issue that does not affect their ability to fly safely.
sure i would have problems if I lost my good eye in flight, but if something happened to injure a pilots eye i don't think that they would be in any state to fly a plane, good remaining eye or otherwise. :P
What has an ATPL got to do with medicals??? it's surely a knowledge and experience level qualification. A person can be ATPL but not fly internationally.
I am starting to consider taking legal action on CASA medicals since I wrote in to them when I first started my training in 2003 and found myself with this limitation "valid for Australian airspace only". I asked what effect this restriction would have on my career and what limitations it would place and was told it would only prevent me flying internationally and that I would need permission from each airspace authority I flew through if I wanted to fly internationally. I explicitly asked if I would be able to fly domestic airlines and they said yes. That was however over the phone.
At no point was I told I could not hold an ATPL. I would never have continued my training. Now I feel all my efforts have been for nothing. As much as I love flying I could not be satisfied doing it for the fun of it... I set out for a career in aviation and it is the one and only goal in life I have ever had. Now the only goal I have is vanishing because of a technicality over my eyesight... which is good enough for me to play soccer, if my eyesight was so bad I would never be able to do that because my brain would not be able to work out how far the ball is from me or what direction/speed it is travelling. But I do have depth perception. I can spot planes further out than some pilots I have flown with who have 20/20 vision both eyes!
ForkedTailDoctorKiller: if you have some suggestion on how I could attempt to correct my eyesight please share.
To answer the earlier question the exact wording of my restriction is:
5. Holder does not fully meet requirements of ICAO Convention chapter 6 annex 1.