Hello boys and girls...here's my two pence worth:
Someone once said : "I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite." I read Gerards posting with annoyance quoting a letter from a specialist. With every respect to the medical profession, sometimes the opinions and advice they lend their patients is somewhat to be desired. Letters like this one have unnecessarily detered young men and women from realising their ambitions to be pilots. Truth is, many pilots the world over, fly for a living and do so with Keratoconus. They wear glasses, RGP's. Some have even had corneal grafting. Some have heart conditions, diabetes and other such illnesses yet continue to hold valid medical certificates and fly everyday. Some have even had a corneal graft. The FAA is one example of a regulator who issues initial class 1's to people diagnosed with KC. The specialist who wrote this letter expresses an opinion. A narrow one if you ask me. He shows some ignorance to the rules that regulate the aviation industry. Rules that are routinely bent, twisted and interpreted. Gather a few opinions. Opinions from doctors who specialise in KC. I mean if you have a heart problem your treated by a cardiologist. Not your family doctor. Talk to your regulator. Have your research done. Know what the rules say and ASK questions!!
I do hope that European regulatory bodies will take their heads out of the sand on this one. The advent of Corneal Crosslinking is akin to finding a cure for cancer. Albeit on a much smaller scale. The moment KC is diagnosed, crosslinking should be like taking a pill for your headache....it should be a matter of course. Why take the "lets just wait and see" approach? If you do that, your eyesight WILL deteriorate, either slowly or quickly and you inevitably end up fiddling around with glasses or RGP's for the rest of your life only because you decided to have crosslinking done when it was too late. STOP IT EARLY. EASA, I hope, will acknowledge crosslinking for what its worth. There is unmistakeable evidence over the past 10years, that crosslinking stops the progression of KC and in some cases even reverses it.
I am an Air Traffic Controller. Have been for years. My KC is mild. I was lucky it didn't progress quickly. Rather slowly. I wear glasses for reading and doing my work but get around without them ordinarily. I have had crosslinking done. Its the best decision I ever made. I also held a JAA class 2 medical for private flying. Got it without any issue. Why should a class 1 be any different. The doctor in the letter proports that safety would be an issue. Why? I can fly a Cessna 172 on my own with KC. But I can't fly a 737 with state of the art equipment and a right hand man??
Again I refer you to the quote above. Its your body, your health and ultimately your decision based on sound advice.