Aircrew Officer Selection Medical Query

[magicmick]

Hello, I would be extremely grateful if I could pick your collective brains regarding an Aircrew Officer medical question:



My son is 20 years old and for as long as I can recall he has dreamed of becoming a military pilot (manned aircraft rather than RPAS) he was a member of the RAF section of the CCF at his school, leaving as the head of section, he is now studying Aerospace Engineering at university and is a member of the University Air Squadron which he enjoys immensely.



The problem he has concerns his eyesight, his right eye is outside refraction limits for myopia and astigmatism and his left eye is outside refraction limits for astigmatism. We understand that these failings can be corrected by laser treatments that the RAF accept (PRK, LASEK and LASIK) however I cannot help thinking that there are so many pilot applicants who have good eyesight without needing laser treatment that the fact that he has had laser treatment would disadvantage him even if he were to pass every selection test.



All of the Medical Officers that he has asked have told him that laser treatment would not disadvantage him during selection but I assume that in these PC, woke and enlightened times they would say that.



So my question to you all is are you aware of any new entry aircrew officers who had laser eye treatment before they joined and were still able to pass through selection and aircrew training?



Thank-you all so much for your advice.

[Fortissimo]

There should not be any filter on him because of laser surgery. During my time on the Surgeon General's committee on aircrew medical standards, the 'no laser surgery before OASC' policy was amended to recognise both advances in surgery and the potential for turning down potentially the best pilot to ever walk the planet because he or she had been treated prior to their medical. The argument used to be that accepting previous laser treatment meant you could be encouraging someone to have surgery on a healthy eye when the probability was that the candidate would trip up on aptitude, anthropometry or their officer qualities.

My recommendation is for your son to do the aptitude tests as a stand-alone (test in advance) - OASC can do this and his UAS will be able to help set it up. He would then be in a better position to decide whether he wants to have the surgery purely to meet the medical standard. He also needs to know what the odds are of securing a pilot slot, as it is a very competitive field for a small number of places and there are some extremely talented young people out there; I hope your son is one of them.

[magicmick]

Thank-you so much for your excellent advice, I will certainly get him to do as you advise, he’s only 20 and no reputable eye hospital will touch him until he is 21 so plenty of time to get advance test arranged.

[CrabInCab]

The OC UAS should be all over this - he will have access to all the relevant medical documents and will be able to get advice from the DOM (Medics at OASC). There is a recommendation on minimum age to undertake laser treatment (23 IRRC) which is linked to full growth maturity of the eye ball - again the AP has all this in.