wannabepilot1531

Alright heres the deal. I am 16 years old, live in Ontario and plan to go to an aviation university program (UWO, Waterloo) My vision is as follows;

UNCORRECTED - Right: 20/400 Left: 20/400
CORRECTED - Right: 20/20 Left: 20/20
REFRACTIVE ERROR - Right:-4.75D Left:-6.50D
ASTIGMATISM - Right: -1.75D Left:-0.50D

I understand that I am well beyond the vision requirements for a category 1 medical. And probably a bit too young to have LASIK or PRK done quite yet. So i guess what i'm really asking is should i go for the eye surgery anyway and hope for the best? which surgery do you recommend? if not, are there any other solutions for this problem?

Thanks in advance, and any advice is greatly appreciated.

P.S. If your advice to me is to give up, then please save yourself some time and don't post, i am determined to fly commercially one day and will find a solution no matter what it takes. thanks.

Aaron

JUZ777

Chris-1234 Ive been playing around on the net and have come across a company in the USA who say that with corrective contact lenses or with glasses they can cure colour blindness, i was wondering wheather there are any restrictions on using these to gain a medical certificate on the understanding that these glasses/ contact lenses were worn when flying?


As far as i know Chris here in Australia and New Zeland you cannot use any form of corrective lense for colour vision.. Sorry ... This is not to say you cant hold a licence, though it would probably be restricted in some way..

2close

And that is like saying that an asthmatic pilot cannot fly with his inhaler or a myopic pilot cannot fly with his glasses.

Whilst I freely admit that this needs looking at a bit closer (and I don't have the time right now) if the authorities cannot come up with a valid, scientific reason, based on absolute fact and not just the whims of the old boys club, then this would be highly discriminatory.

The authorities are skating on very thin ice vis-a-vis this issue of CVD and it is going to bite them in the backside very soon.

Watch this space,

2close

Chris-1234

Thanks for the responce.

As i dont know how colour blind i am as regards to a medical certificate i think the only thing i can do is to go along and get tested and foind out for sure before i make any decisions about scraping the whole idea.

Cheers.

Chris

2close

Chris,

I don't know if the same rules apply in New Zealand but in Australia you can hold a class 1 medical certificate with CVD and you can hold a CPL and fly commercially.

You may wish to check with the NZ authorities.

However, a note of caution, the current figures (and again I refer to Australia) are that there are 14,000 CPL holders not engaged in flying jobs so competition may be strong.

HTH

2close

in_visible_me

does lasik eye surgery affect me getting a JAR Class 1 medical?

thanks

etiennebeardmore

Hi there,

I just took my class 1 medical last Friday and passed on all but one thing:

While my eyesight is fine, the doctor told me that my eyes aren't coordinated enough (e.g. if i focus on a point and bring it in closer and closer to my eyes, there is a point where one eye goes off while the first eye still focuses on the point). Apparently this is to do with the muscles and I need to train them.

The doctor wouldn't give me much more information but booked me in to have this part of the test redone in 6 weeks time.

Does anybody know which exercises I can do to get my eyes working as a team in 6 weeks???

Thanks,

Etienne

waterpau

not the office jnr,

Providing you have a PPL, are over 21 and have stability in your specs prescription for at least three years, the CAA should give you a Class 1 medical with short term deviation. When you obtain your CPL, providing your astigmatism is still within renewal limits, the short-term deviation is lifted from your medical making it a full, unrestricted class 1. I've heard that people have obtained the medical with a deviation without holding a PPL, but don't whether that's true or not. Give Gatwick a call and see if Adrian Chorley will look at your case.

sam109,

I'm in exactly the same position as you - there is a small risk that my astigmatism will get worse before getting the deviation removed, but the risk is small, and I'd much rather have completed the training and lost my medical than do nothing and live with the regret. If you can afford it and are passionate about a career, go for it!

Just one thing that may be of interest: I applied to CTC with my Class 1 medical with short term deviation and passed Stage 3 in June. Unfortunately they didn't fully understand the whole deviation thing at the time I applied, so decided to stop my application before I got to sit stage 4. However, they did say that if I had the deviation lifted after getting my frozen ATPL they would take me onto the ATP scheme; hope that helps anyone else who might be in a similar situation!

Good luck to all with getting (and keeping!) your medical certs - don't forget there's always the FAA if the CAA won't play ball!

waterpau

not the office jnr

waterpau
check your pms!
jnr.

phillipsmw

In addition to waterpau's post, if youve had laser surgery....if your pre-op prescription is outside the initial requirements then the deviation is a long-term one, not short-term. So the UK aircraft restriction remains on your medical indefinately, and you need to separately plead with the other JAA authorities for their permission.

This is due to fineprint in the rules... With laser surgery the renewal limits dont apply, even if you're going for a renewal!

This isnt the case for you, invisible me, because you are within the initial limits. Just thought Id add this for anyone in this position.

voloamilleallora

.......if someone lose his jaa 1 class medical (for example uk issued) but still within limits for a 1 class uk medical and during this period he is working for a company flying uk registered aircraft, can this person maintain his job with this company or automatically he's going to lose it??

waterpau

ceresale,

That's a tricky question. I might be over-simplifying, but as I understand it, if a chap loses his JAA Class 1 medical, then he won't be able to fly aircraft for remuneration on any of the European countrys' registers. That's on the condition that loss of medical was related to falling outside of JAA medical standards...

Whether the CAA might issue a restricted class 1 medical (restricting a pilot to perhaps flying day-time VFR commercially only within the UK, if there is such work) as long as they meet ICAO medical standards, I don't know. Anybody?

waterpau

lazyjai

HI .. Can anyone please tell me where i can do the Airfield signal light gun test.? I live in Vancouver Bristish Columbia now ......
I passed the Farnsworth test .. but wasn't able to pass the lantern test ..... I need to do the airfield signal LIght test because i am planning to pursue my career in Hong kONg . ...
i called transport Canada and my aviation medical doctor.... and they don't know any information where i can do that test...
Does anyone know the closest place where i can do the signal light gun test ..? ..

thanks YOU very much .

steve

Spaceghost

Hi all,

I've been having a good look around about vision and astigmatism is my pitfall.

I looked at 3 previous prescriptions from the past 2 years, 2 years ago my astigmatism was only -1.0, then 6 months ago it said it was at -2.25, and then about 1 month ago it said it was at -1.75.

As you can see this is very annoying, I'm going to get another eye test next week and see what it comes out as.

When you go for the medical, do they test your eyes or do you just hand them a current prescription? I'm worried that if I get a high street eye test it might come out as within the requirements so I go and cough up £500 for the medical and it is over.

I am only 22 so I am really hoping my astigmatism will stop getting worse now or at this rate I might be over the renewal requirements after I've spent all my money on training.

It seems like I have several options:

1) Wing it and hope my astigmatism is within the requirements on the day.
2) Get LASIK, which I don't really want to but it might be my only option to become a pilot.
3) Wait and see if the CAA expand the astigmatism requirements next year.

Tamesy1

Hey space,

Im in exactly the same position,(Astig 2.5) with much consideration i think im going down the LASIK route. However im only 19 and plan to get the surgery after finishing uni in a couple of years, so with a bit of luck the astigmatism limits may be dropped. Im writing to the CAA as we speak so il let you know how it goes...

Shaikh N Hoque

Hi,

I have class one medical by FAA have colour problem, so had to take test to wave that from my medical. When I convert my licence to Canadian they honer that. I have a chance to get a job in India, my question is they will make a problem on this? or they will honer this?

Thank you

Hoque, Shaikh

Blinkz

Read the HUGE colour vision thread just below and you might find some more information. It depends on how Indian licencing works. If they will accept either your FAA or Candian licence then you will probably be ok, but if they don't and you have to take another medical my guess is you will have a problem.

Ww/W

Does anybody know when the CAA will begin standard colour vision testing with the new systems developed with City Uni? I want to take the new test asap to see if I might just be able to get a Class 1 medical.

Chars, Jon.

Spaceghost

Today's eye test says I have exactly -2.00 for my astigmatism, the optomitrist said that it varies from optomitrist to optomitrist on how they assess the astigmatism as it is not completely acurate, some will put it a bit lower than it is and some a bit higher, I guess it does not help that it seems to only go up in .25 increments.

Anyway so I really am right on the border.

east_sider

Hi Jon

I volunteered to take part in the City Uni trials, as have a few people that posted on this thread. My personal impression from talking to the lady that tested me is that the trial will take approximately 1-2 years to complete, not for the fieldwork but also to analyse the results, draw conclusions and make recommendations. Then there will likely be another period of delay while the CAA consider the recommendations and eventually implement some changes. So I got the strong impression that there would be no change to the current class 1 medical colour test for the medium term. By medium I mean certainly more than 1 year but hopefully not 3 years!

There is also a link somewhere higher up on this thread to a Flight International article speculating on when the new test would be introduced, can't remember but they thought several years away I think.

If I were you I would try to get yourself on the City Uni trial, and/or go for their standard colour vision assesment (which you have to pay £125 for). Depending on how old you are you most likely don't want to be waiting around for years for the CAA to change the class 1 test. PM me if you want contact details for the City Uni person running the trials.

Having taken the PAPI test myself I'm of the opinion I couldn't pass it when introduced by CAA. My CVD diagnosis is "Moderate Protanomaly"

Shunter (see post above) was diagnosed as "Very mild dueteronomy" and he could pass the PAPI test, so if you go to City Uni for a full diagnosis now you should have a good idea if you could pass it in the future.

cheers