Hi guys,
I'm a new addition to the forum. I'm a 29 years old wannabe (with 1.00 hours TFT !) thats just almost scraped enough cash for his full whack ATPL course. I have undergone my Initial Class 1 medical at Gatwick 2 weeks ago (11th May) & would like to share my experiences with you since the results of my vision tests will hopefully be of value to some fellow wannabes.
Firstly, the other tests were all spot, well within limits EXCEPT of course for the vision.
Although my current post-LASIK vision was satisfactory (0.00 & +0.25) I did have LASIK 5 years ago. My limits pre-LASIK were as follows:
R eye (sphere) -6.50
L eye (sphere) -6.00
R eye (cyclic) -0.50
L eye (cyclic) -0.50
Thats a TOTAL error of -7.00 & -6.50, both outside the limit.
Because I had LASIK I had to have two additional tests done on my eyes in addition to the usual stuff.
First was the "spot the polo mint through the welding mask" test.
Secondly I had to have drops put in to open up my pupils, for the Aeroexaminer (Adrian - nice man) to have a good poke round the back of my eyes with a torch (pardon the pun). Beware that the drops make you very sensitive to light and you wont be able to drive for a few hours (I just went to the airport to watch the planes touching down until they wore off).
In the end all my eye functions were well within tolerances (colour vision, peripheral vision, condition of the eye) AND my LASIK was done 5 years ago, so was very stable. This all boiled down to the Aeroexaminer saying that he was happy with my eyes and in view of my current good overall health & prescription was perfectly happy to grant me a deviation to my UNLIMITED Class-1 certificate due to excessive pre-LASIK prescriptive limits (Unlimited G-reg aircraft operations
).
Now the interesting bits.
He said that deviation will NOT be automatically recognized by individual JAR countries, I would have to ask individual CAA's if they would honour the deviation (He reassured me that if someone from another JAR country came to them with a deviation they would normally accept it).
On a personal note he also suggested to hold onto my purse until EASA kicks in since even he was mudddled as to what is going to happen. He said that the last draft of EASA FCL he's seen still had the pre-prescription limits in it...
(yes I know...)
He also said he was unaware of what is going to happen to grandfather rights but confirmed that getting the Class-1 before EASA is a prudent move.
Overall I thought they were a good, friendly bunch of people & I didn't feel too stressed - exept when I found I pee'd into somebody else's paper cup...
