If the CVD issue were being managed on the basis of evidence and safety risk, the test determined by CASA for the purposes of CASR 67.150(6)(c) should be based on reality: Can the person pass the flight test for an instrument rating? Can the person pass the flight test for a multi-engine rating? Can the person meet the required level of competence in a sim ride? (Of course, we know the results of those tests, because CVD pilots have been passing them for decades.)
It's obvious that CASA is going to try to tough this one out.
It seems to me that the argument to leverage off the mystique of aviation and the fear of the 30,000' death plunge will be based on "the complex, and often relatively subtle use of colour in modern cockpits". The "problem" - so it will be alleged - is that "when a light changes colour depending on the state of a system, or when the colours of digits change on an EFIS display", our CVD colleagues take longer than non-CVD pilots to notice the change. This and the consequent risks are a recent development the implications of which were not considered by the Tribunal in the previous matters.
I can see it now: CASA flashes up those airliner cockpit photos with all the dazzling and confusing arrays of coloured lights and dials and screens and numbers and words. "The colours in that cockpit are different for a reason, your Honour. How could a person who has a defect in the ability quickly to distinguish between those colours possibly be as competent, and therefore be as safe, as a person without that defect?" [Pause, to let the Tribunal contemplate the horror of the 30,000' death plunge...] (It won't work on the Tribunal, but CASA doesn't have too much else to argue.)
Time to do some very important homework, people.
Is anyone aware of any safety-critical system in any "modern cockpit" that annuniciates through, and only through, the change in colour of one light or text? E.g. A system that has a green light that itself changes to red to signify a safety-critical failure/circumstance requiring immediate attention?
Is anyone aware of any display that annunciates important information through, and only through, the change in colour of text/numbers?
Is anyone aware of any warning system in any "modern cockpit" that does not use multiple methods to annunicate a safety-critical failure/circumstance requiring immediate attention? e.g. buzzer/tone sound plus flashing light in front of the pilot plus a physical intervention to cancel the annunciation.
(I would have thought that if the answer to any of those questions is 'yes', it's a badly-designed system, irrespective of the CVD issue.)
Is anyone aware of any circumstances in which a CVD pilot takes more time than a non-CVD pilot to notice a change in important information or an annuciation of a safety-critical failure/circumstance requiring immediate attention?
Last edited by Creampuff; 12th Jul 2014 at 00:09.