Hi folks,
It is a challenging task to make a point that has relevance in just ten minutes. I think the essential matter is that pilots perform their duties safely by assimilating and responding to vast amounts of complex information. It can be demonstrated that the addition of colour to the displays of that information is totally redundant in all instances. In my slides I showed several instrument panels which include colour, and the point I made was that the three pilots that were the subject of the talk had demonstrated repeatedly throughout their careers that they were able to access that information reliably and repeatedly without necessarily having the ability to name the colours present in the display. This is a different proposition from one where they might fail to detect the various zones represented by the different colours, for instance in a weather radar display. It is the information that is important, and that determines behaviour, not the naming of colours. Further, the task of making the judgment that a particular pilot does or does not display the skills and knowledge required to fly safely falls most appropriately in the lap of flying instructors and examiners, not in the office of medicos or optometrists.
Finally, though case presentations involving only three pilots does not constitute conclusive evidence, we have now built a sizable population of colour defective pilots who have no operational restrictions whatsoever, and the size of that population is now assuming a statistically significant group from which valid evidence can be deduced. As Ausdoc may or may not know, there are now other threads out there discussing this matter, and I am heartened by the shift in thinking that is being expressed among aeromedical people on this topic. It is ultimately going to be decided by the courts, and nowhere moreso than in Australia, where our legal system offers independent judicial review. It is going to be ALL ABOUT EVIDENCE, nothing more, nothing less.