SoCal App - The refractive error pre op limits are set, and it is more or less a random number for the limits.
Currently it is +5, -6, before it used to be +3/ -3.
In the USA, FAA does NOT have such restrictions, ICAO rules does not have such restrictions.
Yes there is a valid point of a limit, however the absurd part is who decides the current limits? Each case should be judged individually from case to case, and not on the basis of pre op limitation number, which does not mean one thing or the other.
UK CAA medical are very progressive in this, however the EASA is the killer. I believe if UK went it alone, they would adopt a model more similar to the FAA, sensible!
And not indoctrinated by some backward east European mentality, where pilots all had to be super humans and have military background.
I have had this conversation with several doctors + AME's, and they all without exception share the same view, and it is also from some of those that I was told who was holding EASA back from being more close to the FAA regulations.
The irony is that, a FAA licensed pilot can come into JAA airspace, and have class 1 FAA medical, but would not pass a JAA class 1 medical and vice versa!