Fleet Air Arms eyesight question.

[Alister101]

Hello, about 2years ago the eye doctor said i have perfect 6/6 (20/20) vision however in the past 1year and 6months my eyesight has deteriorated and am now under the -0.75 for the fleet air arms. I asked the eye doctor about my eyes stabilizing when am in 20's roughly the time am joining and if my eyesight will get better(am 18 now). And the eye doctor said that theres no way of preventing myopia however most US and EU military's accept someone to go through pilot training who has had lasik/lasek. Is this true?

[Skittles]

Been there, done that, and the answer is an emphatic 'no.'

Current military pilots can get lasek, but corrective surgery precludes you from entry into any of the UK flying branches. I.e. a FJ pilot with 5 years experience might be allowed to have lasek and continue flying (assuming the operation was successful) whereas you can't have the operation then go on to apply.

USAF does allow corrective surgery before entry - according to somewhere on their website. However I'm not sure what percentage of applicants that applies to.

When my eyesight was 6/9 I naively tried to work around the fact that I would require surgery, writing to naval and air force surgeons/opthalmists etc to discuss the matter. I even had a consultation with Ultralase to assess my suitability (which I was). The answers were very considerate and informative, but ultimately the answer was 'no.'

Looking back it was stupid of me to even try to 'convince' them to allow me to go through selection, but when you're determined you lose some of your common sense, and apparently mine departed in abundance. nevertheless I gave them my name and got the opthalmic supplement, upon taking the eye test it emerged my eyesight had rapidly deteriorated to 6/12 in both eyes. That was the 'nail in the coffin' per se. I didn't even hand back the opthalmic supplement after that. The whole idea was for the letter to come through the post and give me some closure, but after the eye test (must have been the 10th/15th I'd had through the process) I didn't even need the letter.

Can you tell it still disappoints me?!

Regardless I continue with my PPL, and although extremely disheartened at first have immersed myself in GA and am really enjoying it, and apart from the horrific cost look forward to a 'life in aviation!' Fingers crossed one day I'll be able to go for a ride in my very own Spit/hurri/P-51 replica and you never know, pending an awful lot of hard work and a big chunk of luck I might even be able to fire up something which chugs down jet fuel.

Apologies for the thread diversion.

[Alister101]

you said your eyesight was 6/9 then went to 6/12 i thought that was the cut off point for the fleet air arms 6/12 with myopia of -0.75?