Doing a medical in france?

[Blinkz]

Hey guys,

As some of you prob know I'm slightly colourblind. Over the summer I managed to fail the CAA test for colourvision however I'm sure that I can pass the beyen test. I was thinking of going to france to get my class 1. Is this feasible? the UK and france are both JAR states and so the medical is valid in both. The only trouble is that I don't speak a word of french, will this be a problem? Does anyone have and advice on how to go about doing this? thanks alot.

[cpt]

Hi,
Beeing french here is what I can say about french " CEMPN" (centre d'expertise medicale du personnel navigant)
Most of them are managed by the forces except one in Paris (air France, I believe) and one in Toulouse....
The usual color blind test I use to take is that one with colored dots forming numbers amongst a mosaic of other colored dots (I don't know the name of this test from memory)
I am fairly sure you might be able to get somebody who can understand you at the reception desk
I don't know wether a "french" class one will be accepted by the CAA, and vice versa. It wasn't the case 12 years ago when I was working in the UK....I had to take a french and a british class 1 to keep my 2 licences current.
Beeing abroad for a while now it's a bit complicated to get infos from those CEMPN (adresses etc...) maybe a search on google might help.
If you really get stuck I still might be able to get more infos for you from where I am
For information the cost of a standard renewall is about 220 +Euros.

Good luck !

[Blinkz]

thanks so much for the support! A french class1 will definately be accepted by the CAA as both the UK and France are members of the JAA. The colourvision test you talk about are called PIPs and they are used by nearly all the authorities as a basic test. However if you fail these autorities offer you a more advanced test using lanterns. One test which is of french origin is called the beyne lantern which I failed due to what I think are unfair circumstances and I'm sure that if I had another go I could pass it.

I will look up that agency you mention now. Thanks alot for your help!

[egbb_2004]

I also failed the Beynes lantern because i was so nervous that i said the blue light was green, do you think that they would let me retake the test? Have you tried to appeal against their ruling?

[Lemurian]

Hello,Blinkz,EGBB
The address of the CPEMPN (Centre PRINCIPAL d'expertise médicale du personnel navigant) :
Hopital militaire de Percy
101 Av Barbusse Clamart,cedex 92141
is's situated off the southern part of Paris.
Phone number :+333141467021...be patient,it's a tape with multiple choices.
Contrarily to what cpt said,it's managed by air force specialists (and I mean "Specialists".).When you go for a medical in France,you will be seing a succession of physicians,and although they've all passed their Aviation medecine degree,they specialised each in a field of his/her choice :ENT,heart,Ophtalmology,general physio...I personally chose to remain with them,iso going to the Air France centre as in my opinion,the risk of conflicting interests is reduced a lot .
As for your eye test,they will start with the basic Ishihara (Probably what you called PIPS,as it's just a series of cards with a pattern of pastel dots defining numbers).If that test is a fail,they will go onto the Beynes lantern test,or better,they will go to the bottom of your problem with an association test :Arrange in order (palest to darkest) several assortments of coloured chips.
That's pretty thorough (of course you wouldn't escape the eye physio ).If your impairment is within the JAR basic requirements,you get your class one.If not,a waiver (the word in French is :derogation) is still possible,depending on your flight experience.
What I would advise is :ask for an eye test.If that is ok,go for the full medical.As cpt said,it's quite a lot of dough!
Hope all this helped,otherwise,pm me as I do not always look into this forum.
Cheers.

[Blinkz]

I don't have a medical or license anywhere. All I have done with the CAA is the colourvision test.

I just assumed that I would be able to take my medical in france since its JAA and then transfer it to the CAA if I pass. Will France not let me since I have had this test with the CAA?

I don't have any address in france so and correspondence will have to come to the UK, would that be a problem? Also I don't speak a word of french so things could get confusing :confused:

[Blinkz]

fair enough, you don't think the UK address would b a problem then?

I have to take the medical in a country that uses the Beyne lantern, its a french lantern so france uses it and the UK have recently started using it. I don't know of any others that do.