Eyesight requirement for the RAF or USAF??
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Eyesight requirement for the RAF or USAF??
Hi there,
I'm training towards a career in the airlines because i'm pretty sure that medically with my eyesight i cant get into an airforce. I have a class one medical but i wear corrective lenses. Could someone just clear my mind as to whether or not there is any possibility of flying a fighter jet with the RAF or USAF? Even if eye surgery would help? Thanks.
Steve
I'm training towards a career in the airlines because i'm pretty sure that medically with my eyesight i cant get into an airforce. I have a class one medical but i wear corrective lenses. Could someone just clear my mind as to whether or not there is any possibility of flying a fighter jet with the RAF or USAF? Even if eye surgery would help? Thanks.
Steve
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Depends on your correction factor.
Anything between (trying to remember) - 0.50 to +0.75 was fine on entry (depending on age).
Once you are in the Service your vision would have to drop markedly to warrant med discharge. Lots of pilots/WSOs, etc wear glasses. Some wear 'approved' contacts and I believe the RAF are looking into corrective surgery.
Think the bottom line is restricting entry level vision. Contact your local AFCO for information.
Anything between (trying to remember) - 0.50 to +0.75 was fine on entry (depending on age).
Once you are in the Service your vision would have to drop markedly to warrant med discharge. Lots of pilots/WSOs, etc wear glasses. Some wear 'approved' contacts and I believe the RAF are looking into corrective surgery.
Think the bottom line is restricting entry level vision. Contact your local AFCO for information.
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For RAF pilot IIRC it's +/- 0.75 Dioptre, I scraped through my Flying Scholarship but failed my UAS medical. I can't remember why but they sent me to the Central Medical Establishment for a whole series of tests and I ended up with a pair of 'Corrective Flying Spectacles' and they let me in. Funny thing is I never actually used them mainly because they made my vision worse. I subsequently failed the medical at OASC for pilot entry and even got into a bit of a debate with the Gp Cpt about it ! I lost.
I think if you can read the third bottom line of the eyesight chart uncorrected you're OK.
Corrective surgery was a big nono at the time.
I think if you can read the third bottom line of the eyesight chart uncorrected you're OK.
Corrective surgery was a big nono at the time.
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Corrective surgury still is a big no no they map your cornea to check you haven't had it done during Part 2 medical.
I know next to nothing about eyes but I do know that with one eye I struggled to read the bottom line; that eye was a borderline pass.
I know next to nothing about eyes but I do know that with one eye I struggled to read the bottom line; that eye was a borderline pass.
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Sorry may have given the wrong impression on corrective surgery. The RAF will not accept anyone who has had it done before they enter (as far as I know), hence the corneal mapping.
But I talked to the nice optometrist at Cranwell (and Doctors at Med Wing, Henlow) and they said the RAF was looking into providing corrective surgery (like Boots the Opticians) in the near to medium future for aircrew.
Hope that clears up my earlier post.
MT
But I talked to the nice optometrist at Cranwell (and Doctors at Med Wing, Henlow) and they said the RAF was looking into providing corrective surgery (like Boots the Opticians) in the near to medium future for aircrew.
Hope that clears up my earlier post.
MT
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I asked a bit about this earlier. I have a Transport Canada category 1 medical, but wear corrective lenses. My eyesight was 5/6 without. Now, why the worry about the entry eyesight? The reason that I was given by the recruiter was that under high g-forces vision through a lens is distorted. If you can fly with glasses later in your career, why not start with them? Especially if you want to fly for a military as strapped for pilots as Canada?
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I went to OASC about 8 or 9 years ago, and shared a Taxi with 3 trainee pilots. They all said to me, "Just read and memorise the bottom line as you go in, then just read it back to them! thats how i got through! once you're in, you're in!!"
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USAF Class I (initial entry for pilot candidates) refraction standards are somewhat more lenient than those of the RAF, though not by much. Distant visual acuity requirement on the first medical has — within the past several years — been relaxed to 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20, each eye separately. Near visual acuity requirement is still 20/20 uncorrected.
The USAF Class I-A (initial entry for navigator candidates) allows myopia to –4.75 spherical (not sure where the cutoff is for hyperopia or astigmatism), with a DVA minimum of 20/200 correctable with spectacles to 20/20 in each eye separately. NVA standard is 20/40 correctable to 20/20.
Other aircrew positions (e.g.: flight engineer, loadmaster, gunner) only require a Class III, which allows +/–5.50 in any meridian (sph+cyl), a DVA of 20/400 correctable to 20/20, and simply requires one's NVA be correctable to 20/20 (no uncorrected minimum). Even those requirements can be waived.
USN Naval Flight Officer standards (equivalent to USAF navigator) are similar to USAF Class III.
US Army Class I standards are similar to those of the USAF, while Class II/III requirements for non-pilot positions — e.g.: aviation maintenance MOS's assigned to flight crew duties, or MOS 13F Fire Support Specialist/NCO (this is an enlisted field artillery forward observer) assigned to aeroscout duties — can pass with a DVA of 20/400 correctable to 20/20, NVA correctable to 20/20, and an allowed refraction of anything that can fit into a standard issue set of aviator's spectacles (lots of leeway there!).
Initial accession into the US Armed Forces doing anything requires that one's refraction fall within +/–8.00 spherical equivalent on the first medical exam.
The USAF Class I-A (initial entry for navigator candidates) allows myopia to –4.75 spherical (not sure where the cutoff is for hyperopia or astigmatism), with a DVA minimum of 20/200 correctable with spectacles to 20/20 in each eye separately. NVA standard is 20/40 correctable to 20/20.
Other aircrew positions (e.g.: flight engineer, loadmaster, gunner) only require a Class III, which allows +/–5.50 in any meridian (sph+cyl), a DVA of 20/400 correctable to 20/20, and simply requires one's NVA be correctable to 20/20 (no uncorrected minimum). Even those requirements can be waived.
USN Naval Flight Officer standards (equivalent to USAF navigator) are similar to USAF Class III.
US Army Class I standards are similar to those of the USAF, while Class II/III requirements for non-pilot positions — e.g.: aviation maintenance MOS's assigned to flight crew duties, or MOS 13F Fire Support Specialist/NCO (this is an enlisted field artillery forward observer) assigned to aeroscout duties — can pass with a DVA of 20/400 correctable to 20/20, NVA correctable to 20/20, and an allowed refraction of anything that can fit into a standard issue set of aviator's spectacles (lots of leeway there!).
Initial accession into the US Armed Forces doing anything requires that one's refraction fall within +/–8.00 spherical equivalent on the first medical exam.
