Blind Pilot to fly round the UK

[aiglon]

There's been a lot of arguing and bickering on a few threads here lately - then you read something like this and it puts it all into perspective.

Blind pilot to fly round the UK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3884123.stm)

Bloody good luck mate :ok:

Aiglon

[FWA NATCA]

This reminds me of a recent article that I read in the Atlanta Georgia News Paper, about two guys, one drunk and one blind that were arrested in Peachtree Georgia, a golf cart community.

Apparently the two men were at a party and the golf cart owner realized that he was too drunk to drive home, so he asked his blind neighbor who was at the party with him to drive them home in his golf cart and he would sit next to him and give him directions.

All was going well for almost two miles until the drunk told the blind driver to turn left by mistake. When the police arrived and saw that the golf cart was overturned in a ditch and that one guy was almost too drunk to stand they asked who was driving, the blind man, said his buddy wasn't driving but that he was, and that his drunk buddy was giving him directions.

Apparently their aren't any laws against a blind man driving a motorized vechicle, so they charged the drunk guy with public intoxication, and took him off to jail, the blind driver was given a ride home and told don't do any more driving.

Mike
NATCA FWA

[ThePirateKing]

I can't see a couple of measly colours, and I'm not allowed to fly IFR, and yet a bloke who can't see anything at all can fly!?

Seriously, that was only a little bit tongue-in-cheek. This smacks of a complete lack of joined up thinking from the CAA. Rather than restricting colour defective pilots to VFR daytime flying only, why not simply stipulate that they have to have a safety pilot with them? Or better yet, offer a 5 hour course for any lay-person with normal colour vision (e.g. the pilot's partner) to be allowed to fly as safety pilot for the purposes of assisting the PIC with all those things which require colour vision when flying IFR.

Hmpf.

TPK:ok:

[IO540]

"assisting the PIC with all those things which require colour vision when flying IFR."

Can anybody come up with a list of things which require colour vision when flying IFR?

I am talking of the relatively high standard of colour vision which one needs to see the patterns on the isihara plates, or (failing that) to see the tiny distant lights on the CAA lantern test.

The vast majority of people (men usually) who fail the above tests can distinguish all the normal colours perfectly, if presented in a realistic scenario, and in IMC this means instrument lights.

[ThePirateKing]

That was kind of my point. The list is, IMHE, pretty short. Certainly shorter than the list of things that being able to see comes in handy for! :rolleyes:

And yet, here I sit with a "VFR daytime only" endorsement...

TPK:ok:

[Capt. Manuvar]

"Over London the cloud was low and visibility was not the best but it was still better than mine.":p
I caught a passing shot of the instrument panel on the news, looked intresting. Does anyone have a link to a website?
Good luck to him

[Foxy Loxy]

Does anyone know which airfields Mr Cunningham will be visiting?

Foxy

[jezbowman]

He finished today...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3899035.stm

... very impressive. I'm guessing he wasn't PIC as he couldn't hold a Class II medical (and therefore presumably can't hold a PPL?)

Either way, splendid job. Well done that man!