Is there an eye specialist in the house?
Hello all,
Bit of a weird one; would appreciate any thoughts on the below:
My vision is pretty good: I've never worn corrective lenses and I have eye tests every year as part of my medical as an Air Cadet gliding instructor.
However, I've noticed for the past few years that sometimes my pupils are different sizes. Specifically, my left eye seems to take longer to respond to changes in light conditions. Generally they're about the same size (sometimes exactly), but sometimes they're both quite different.
More recently (6 months or so) I've noticed a strange effect whilst flying. Often on climbout, as I glance at the altimeter, the primary needle appears to 'flick' back a degree or two, before returning to where I originally saw it. This only lasts a fraction of a second. I'm thinking that the problem is likely to be a small lag in movement between my right eye moving and my left eye following it. My girlfriend (a junior doctor) says that she can sometimes see a slight lag when she waves her finger in front of my eyes, but isn't really able to offer any stunning medical insights, or relate it to aviation medicals.
So my questions to the medical boffins of pprune are:
1) Is this worth worrying about?
2) Does anyone else have this?
3) Am I going blind?
4) Could this be a problem in any future class 1 or 2 aviation medicals?
Regards to all,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Just noticed your post here! I also noticed this a couple of weeks ago (and subsequently made the mistake of googling 'unequal pupils', not something I'd recommend, had me in a right panic!). I've not had any other symptoms or problems with my vision but I went to see my optician who, together with my GP, has referred me up to the opthalmologist just to be on the safe side. Apparently it's pretty common (I believe 1 in 5 people have it to some degree!) and it's possible I've always had slightly crazy eyes and just never noticed it before (I notice it all the time now but it could just be that I am looking for it!). It's probably nothing to worry about but it's worth getting it checked out as it can be a sign of some quite serious underlying conditions (however if you've had it for a few years it's probably nothing!). I've just got off the phone to the CAA at Gatwick and they said that as long as it doesn't affect my vision it wont affect my Class 1. Anyway, worth getting checked out by a professional but not somethign I'd worry too much about.
