Yep Do it once and forever. I should have done it long ago, but the AME I've been using sent me to the eye doc across the street for a bunch of tests, all of which I passed, so Doc now no longer questions my color vision on that report. If I have to switch AMEs again and they don't want to pass me, I will finally do the SODA.
For second class or higher, yes, there is more to it. You can read all about it in FAA Order 8900.1 -- go to FSIMS and search on Special Medical Flight Test.
Cocolos, first pay an AME and don't expect to touch paper during a consultation. Make sure he has a couple of different color dot tests and see how badly or how well you do. Insist on DAYLIGHT, it matters. If he's really an airman advocate, see about him getting you in front of the tower light guns, which is half of the third class waiver exam.
The ability of the human brain to adapt to vision anomalies is quite astonishing. They did an experiment years ago involving giving people glasses which inverted the image. The first day, they couldn't stand up without falling over. Within a short time, they adapted and were functioning normally. Then they took the glasses away, and the same thing happened -- initial disfunctionality, followed by adaptation. My own optometrist keeps threatening to write a paper on me, because I have an astonishingly large difference in correction between my two eyes (3 vs 9 diopters). She says that by all the books, I should not be able to fuse the images and have functioning depth perception, but I can and do -- probably thanks to 50 years of practice.
Interestingly, the FAA permits this one-near/one-far correction with laser eye surgery, but not with "monovision" contact lenses. Why?
Maybe Bruce knows.
Interestingly, the FAA permits this one-near/one-far correction with laser eye surgery, but not with "monovision" contact lenses. Why?
I've thought that might be the reason, but my vision is very different with glasses versus contacts, and it takes only a minute or two to adapt back and forth, but then again, my optometrist thinks I'm a walking journal article.
This is how the 1997(?) crash of the MD 88 at LGA is attributed. An IOE captain, had his contacts in (one for near, one for far) erratically and missed all the depth cues.Interestingly, the FAA permits this one-near/one-far correction with laser eye surgery, but not with "monovision" contact lenses. Why?
Really? That wasn't the case with me... (I'm not saying the opthalmologist was in his right mind). I had ortho-K lenses, they made me quit wearing the one in my left eye for a month, wearing a contact in that eye, and continuing with ortho-k in my right. Then they did the procedure, and I stopped wearing both. :/
Bad advice -- don't take it. Find someone else who knows what s/he's doing to at least give you a pre-screening with a tower light gun and the sectional charts.
...hopefully with a CFI who knows the test procedure, and can also test you on reading the sectional chart.
You do give away your age....I have the night and light gun limitation on my 3rd class medical and it is not a big deal to me.
Back in the day when I was on flight status with the USAF, I always flunked the "book" with numbers and they then handed me a box of yarn with different colored strands in it. I was asked to pick out various colors and did fine so they issued me a medical with no limitations.
Oh for the simpler days.
Cheers
I have the night and light gun limitation on my 3rd class medical and it is not a big deal to me.
Back in the day when I was on flight status with the USAF, I always flunked the "book" with numbers and they then handed me a box of yarn with different colored strands in it. I was asked to pick out various colors and did fine so they issued me a medical with no limitations.
Oh for the simpler days.
Cheers
