Color Vision Problem.

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mikeoscar2

Filing Flight Plan
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Jun 30, 2024
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mike oscar
Hey guys, I don’t know if you guys could answer this. So before enrolling into flight school I wanted to get my first class medical to make sure everything is okay. When I took the exam he said I was colorblind, but this location had an advanced color vision test for an extra $250 on top of the $200 medical fee. So I barely passed the Farnsworth lattern test, but I passed which meant I have no limitations. My main question for you guys is. Do you guys think I can try to take a SODA test where you bring an officer to fly with you and the tower flashes the red and green and white flights, I know my situation is kinda different because I already passed and got my medical but I just don’t wanna go every year to get my medical and be nervous because of me barely passing my color vision, plus it would be $450 every medical I get. And also if I fail the SODA test would I get my first class medical revoked?
 
Wait for a response from one of the Senior AMEs who frequent this forum, but there is encouraging news here. Colorblindness is static: either you have it or you don’t. The only issue I see (see what I did there?) is if the FAA folk accept your test result as official? If they do, you are good for life. I’m betting yes unless it was done by a less than reputable group. But the fact that they had a Farnsworth Lantern is a good sign.

Paging Dr. Bruce @bbchien

-Skip
 
mikeoscar2: you sure can, and I would advise early in your career you determine if you can pass the FAA's signal light test. Go with CFI to the tower and get ten guns from 1200 feet and 10 guns from 1000 feet. Your difficulty will be between the green and the white. If you can get the essential confidence that you can do that, at more than 90 days after your current exam, go again, to a different AME and FAIL the ishiharas (keep your current 1st class). Then, write the FAA and request the MFT to occur at the FSDO of your choice- near you- (BUT MAKE SURE BY CALLING THE TOWER THAT they have the LED guns. I was amazed recently to learn that Boeing field still has the old incandescents).

Practice with these very guns as if your career depends on it. It does.
Purchase two copies of your FSDO's sectional chart, and with a color normal mark EVERY item ( all 3200 of them) with a color normal at your side. The object is "color vision adequate for airman duties". DRILL DRILL DRILL.

About two months before you are signed off to solo, write OKC and ask for the MFT, which is the chart reading, the Light guns and the 25 minute evauation flight.

At many FSDOs, after the auth letter comes, they will farm you out to a DPE who has passes and is current at giving these operational evaluations.
Pass, and no AME will ever show you color dots again.

The Farnsworth lantern has not beenmanufactured since about 1990 and there are to my knowledge only about 90 copies out there still working. I just managed to get bulbs from Czechoslovakia. It's tough keeping it in service. You don't want to be dependent midcareer on finding one.

Did I fail to mention the need to drill?
Why? Because you really only get one shot. If you fail the "bring back at night" (2nd try) your cert always will forever read, "not valid for flight at night or by light gun color signal". About the only thing you can fly after that is a cropduster.

Maybe I failed to mention the need to Drill. And also the tower light guns!


Dr B.
 
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Just curious. After OP say passes all that, does age have an impact and will they run into potentially problems later on? Say being noticed by a colleague having issues with colors at night?
 
He might but that's pretty rare. My own view is "defend your wiaver". Never give ANY cause for the appropriateness of the waiver holder. Carry 100% of the time a handheld, a Rubber Ducky, Headset connectors, and FRESH penlight batteries.
 
Take the SODA, you never know when it might come in handy. My experience is old, but (in retrospect) rather amusing, and might be beneficial:

I passed a SODA test when I trained for my private certificate, first year of college. Graduating college, the Air Force told me that the SODA was not acceptable to be an Air Force pilot, and offered me the Farnsworth test. I took it at Williams AFB, and failed.

However, the airman administering the test told me I was allowed to take it again and sent me to the back of the line. When I got back to him, I'd listened to the responses of those ahead of me in line-- and between that and the very helpful airman, I passed. Barely. Yes, I cheated, and I knew I wouldn't be able to replicate that performance, so I asked if I had to pass the Farnsworth at every physical. I was told that, since color vision is static, I'd never have to take it again. Terrific. I enlisted.

Off I go to Lackland AFB for OTS. Three weeks in, they tell me I have to pass the Farnsworth again. I failed, and couldn't pass any of the alternative tests. Since none of the non-pilot options had any appeal, the Air Force offered me an honorable discharge, which I accepted.

I applied to be an FAA air traffic controller, but my SODA was not acceptable for the initial hire physical. I told them I'd once passed the Farnsworth (Ie., yup, the one the helpful airman helped me cheat on). I got a copy of those results from the Air Force, the FAA accepted them, and I was hired. A year later, when I went in for my physical, they told me I had to pass the Farnsworth again. I failed. But when I reminded them I had a SODA, they said "that'll do"-- and they accepted that SODA at every physical for the next 25 years.

The SODA I took as a freshman is the only color vision test I have ever legitimately passed. But, between that and the helpful airman at Williams, I was able to go on to a successful ATC career (four years at FNT, twenty-one years at ORD, with nine tours at OSH and one SnF), not to mention many years as an active pilot and aircraft owner. Other than the jousting with bureaucracy, my defective color vision has never been an issue.
 
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Passing a color vision test can be more difficult as one ages. A young man with 20/15 vision who barely passes the color vision test, as he ages, the yellowing of the lens(cataract), as well as macular degeneration, can make it more difficult to pass the test. I agree, get the SODA.
 
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