Flying and Eyesight...

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

This question has been bugging me for a while...

I wear glasses...Does that stop me from ever flying VFR aircraft? I plan on joining Flight School either in the US or the UK in the near future maybe after 5-6 years...I know that's a long time and rules could change...I have a power of -2.5 on my right eye and -2.0 on my left...I wear glasses for distance...

It would be great if I could fly mainly small single engines props or such...

So can I or can I not?

Cheers,
Ashar

[ozzy72]

As long as you can pass the medical (including eye-charts and those funny spotty coloured books that I can't remember the name of right now) with your specs on you'll be fine

[expat]

Those funny spotty coloured books that I can't remember the name of right now

Ishihara Test.

Matt

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

As long as you can pass the medical (including eye-charts and those funny spotty coloured books that I can't remember the name of right now) with your specs on you'll be fine

So it's kinda like that driving exam I took...they checked for color blindness...my cortical (I mean the side thingy...)...and I passed...

Cool! I feel good

However, I suppose this is different for Commercial flyers right?

[ozzy72]

I think the only true block would be a military flying career. As long as you don't look like Mr. Magoo you should be okay for a CPL... mind you firms tend to take on people with 20/20 vision for pilot training for preference.....

[beaky]

As ozzy says, all other things being equal, a commercial operator will take the pilot with 20/20 vision.
But that doesn't mean much, because all other things are rarely equal. In the end, those making the decision could be swayed by something they see or sense in you that has nothing to do with hours logged, degrees held, or physical factors.
So put that worry aside, and save your energy for studying.
But it can't hurt to eat more carrots...

As for a PPL, in the states, at least, the requirements for the 3rd class medical are not terribly stringent. The eye test is the toughest I've seen (or not seen, as the case may be ), but to give you a general idea: on my last exam, I scored perfect in one eye and about 20/30 in the other, and they didn't tell me I needed to wear a monocle while flying.

[TSC.]

My eyes are worse that that Ashar, can't remember the exact, but one of them is +/- about 4 & the other is about +/- 2.
My next eye test is due in September

My school have never mentioned it as problem, they even let me leave my dog & white stick in the clubhouse so I can save on fuel, which is nice

Cheers,

TSC.

[Ecko]

When you begin your training here in Denmark the military will accept -1/+1, no more, whether training for fast jets or whirlybirds. -1/+1 of course has to be corrected by either glasses or contacts.

However, it depends on a lot of things, like for instance the doctor who inspects you.
My uncle was in the fighter pilot training program many years ago, and right before the last cut was made (he had already made it from 400 to 5), they had a final eye-test, he failed it; due to some "leftside shadow vision" or something. The doctor said he was okay for helos though, so he became a chopper pilot. He flew sikorsky S-61 for many years, mainly with Sqn 722- the danish SAR sqaudron.

Then, as many others, he finished his military career and started flying busses for SAS. But that just wasn't him, so he seeked back into the RDAF. When they then tested his eyes again (standard procedures), the doctor (of course not the same doctor) said he would've never have let him flown choppers in the first place, with that eye dysfunction.

So my uncle has flown choppers for 17 years without really having the eyes for it!


I don't know about the rules for commercial pilots, but I don't think they're very strict, as long as your faults are corrected by glasses or contacts of course.

[Nexus]

rules are different in Europe vs the US.

the FAA allows you to have a very gross error in your vision, as long as you can correct it with glasses.
The JAA, however, is more stringent and for the class 1 medical you need to be better than -3.0, while the PPL medical has  a limit for -5.0