- Joined
- Oct 16, 2019
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- 6,165
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- Atlanta / Marietta
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Vintage Snazzy (so my adult children say)
So no rain involved in this post, but that song is stuck in my head.
Instead of the usual sometimes disheartening “how to get my medical”, allow me to share a nice positive almost related to a medical.
Eyesight. I grew up with strong near sightedness that contacts and glasses mostly took care of. 27 years ago I had LASIK, and could then see through lead walls. It was amazing. But the years have clicked by, and this now 64 year old has apparently developed astigmatism in both eyes and near sighted in one. Hitting a wee bit less than 20/30. Good enough for PPl, but more is always better.
New optometrist has an engineering undergrad. I’ve not seen this before, but he pulled out paper and started doing a lot of math that I did not quite follow. Best approach was determined to be old fashioned hard gas permeable lenses that would float over the irregular cornea and the liquid tear would be part of the correcting lens. Finding the right size and curvature to fit over odd shaped corneas took about 6 trials of custom made lenses and took from April to yesterday / August.
This retired guy has 20/20 back! And a really nice boost in acuity, especially at night.
I do feel better about flying in general and night flying specifically.
So if anyone else is having something not quite hitting on all cylinders, keep looking around for a doc who will think outside of the box. It just might work out well for you.
Instead of the usual sometimes disheartening “how to get my medical”, allow me to share a nice positive almost related to a medical.
Eyesight. I grew up with strong near sightedness that contacts and glasses mostly took care of. 27 years ago I had LASIK, and could then see through lead walls. It was amazing. But the years have clicked by, and this now 64 year old has apparently developed astigmatism in both eyes and near sighted in one. Hitting a wee bit less than 20/30. Good enough for PPl, but more is always better.
New optometrist has an engineering undergrad. I’ve not seen this before, but he pulled out paper and started doing a lot of math that I did not quite follow. Best approach was determined to be old fashioned hard gas permeable lenses that would float over the irregular cornea and the liquid tear would be part of the correcting lens. Finding the right size and curvature to fit over odd shaped corneas took about 6 trials of custom made lenses and took from April to yesterday / August.
This retired guy has 20/20 back! And a really nice boost in acuity, especially at night.
I do feel better about flying in general and night flying specifically.
So if anyone else is having something not quite hitting on all cylinders, keep looking around for a doc who will think outside of the box. It just might work out well for you.
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