Pilots with Color Vision Restriction

glpilot

glpilot

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Feb 23, 2005
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GLPilot
Well, no pilot related medical message board would be complete with out a discussion thread on Color Vision issues. I guess I'll be the first to break the ice on this one. I know I learned a lot from the folks on the *other* message board of the respected organization we know of. :)

I'm wondering if anyone reads this from the Atlanta area that took the light gun test to obtain their SODA. Just wondering how that experience was. I know a person that had to do it, and went with 2 other people. He did not give me much detail other than he had to write down what he saw from two different locations then hand in the paper.

I have been too chicken to make an appointment to go. Have had very little opportunity to PRACTICE looking at the light signals. (I have got to get myself a hand held radio!) Best I could do is check out the rotating white/green beacon at the home field. I refuse to make the appointment until I have had an opportunity to actually see the light gun hit me a few times. (You only get two cracks at it after all!)

During this past Christmas holiday break I went back home with my wife to New Haven, CT. I drove by their airport (KHVN) and observed the rotating beacon. During the day it looked very similar however during the night, I NEVER SAW ANYTHING SO GREEN when that light turned from white to green. I swear they must have the wrong light bulb in that thing because I clearly saw WHITE-GREEN, WHITE-GREEN, WHITE-GREEN. My mouth was spitting out 100 words a second in excitement. (Those that have this issue would understand.) Everyone in the care must have thought I went nutty because I just started going on and on about seeing the GREEN light. LOL
:dance:

I know a lot of people have the issue so I thought I would post about it here in POA's medical.

I read on the *other* message board of someone that passed the light gun test and had some ideas on how he attacked it. Eating a lot of carrots was one thing I remember he said.

I don't really believe there is anything that can improve or enhance your vision if you have a color deficiency, but I am no medical professional. I would be interested in hearing from the more experienced and knowledgeable individual(s) if there is anything we might not know that may improve or be a further detriment to ones color vision. IE: Carrots in mass quantity may help :mad: , or smoking has an effect on color vision, etc.

Be interested in hearing your comments/suggestions on the topic.

Safe Flying!
 
Personally, I took the light gun test from the end of PWM on a cold winter morning in the 1970s. The Green was to me, a smudgy white. The white was, well, white. The red was no problem.

On some good days I can pass the color dots. I have my own set memorized in the office (after all I give the test!) and have notice how much the ambient light conditions affect my ability to see the figures.

I have assisted a few students by virture of "friends" in the tower.... you call and talk to the chief, who says, such-and-such a time would be OK, "Hey Jon, at 2:00 wannna shoot the color guns down to Taxiway BB?". So, we're out there with a handheld and monitoring a ground freq. Green, white, red, white, green...until the candidate is pretty sure he's got it. Some CANNOT.

Then they make the appointment with the FSDO guy and they do it for real.
 
I think different people may have different degrees of deficiency. Otherwise, I just don't know how to explain the thing.

In my lifetime of experience, I have never been able to train myself to see colors I can't see. I have sat with people where they pointed out the pictures or numbers in the colored dot pictures, and I still can't see them. I have to literally trace them with a magic marker in a color I can see, like yellow, and even then it's hard unless there's a lot of contrast. I have come up with a whole slew of ways to compensate, and that works for me.

This is why I buy my clothes from catalogs like Lands End where the colors are indicated and I can make sure my outfits are coordinated! And then I still have to write down some of the colors on the tag inside the neckline so I don't make a mistake.

Anyway, I hope you'll be able to pass the light gun test with practice, George. When I took it (twice) I had to call out the colors, not write them down.
 
I can see how the administrator giving the test might think it best to call out the colors rather than write them down. You could always wait to see the second light to see if the white/green were what you thought you just saw. Then write it down. Perhaps they were made to write down their answers because there was more than one person taking this test.

If I remember correctly however Toby, you said you can still fly at night, but you are not allowed light gun interaction. I have even asked AOPA about that and they came up with a blank.
 
George, yes, the wording from the manual that dictates how the examiner is to administer the test says something like "No flight by color signal control" in the case where someone fails the test twice, as I did. The manual does not reference night flight at all.

I asked the inspector at the FSDO about it after I failed the second test. It seemed a little strange to me. He said that it looked to him as though night flight was not prohibited, only flight where I'd be depending on color signals. He didn't want to say for sure that this was how it was to be interpreted. He also told me that if I carried a backup handheld and extra batteries on every flight, I'd have the radio requirement in case my radios failed. So that's what I do. I have it hooked up and the antenna attached to the window, just in case.

Right now I am still flying around with my medical certificate from my student pilot days, which has the entire restriction typed on it -- not valid for night flight or flight by color signal control. So this is what anyone would look at if they asked. I also have my PP certificate which says nothing about any of this. I have to get my next medical in August, so I'm going to ask the AME about it then. I don't even know what an actual medical certificate looks like yet. Depending on what he says, I'll ask the FAA about it again at that time.

I find it a little bizarre that the night restriction is not even mentioned in the procedures manual.
 
Toby said:
I think different people may have different degrees of deficiency. Otherwise, I just don't know how to explain the thing.

...

This is why I buy my clothes from catalogs like Lands End where the colors are indicated and I can make sure my outfits are coordinated! And then I still have to write down some of the colors on the tag inside the neckline so I don't make a mistake.
Click to expand...


Erggg... really? It just occurred to me that I've had a couple of strangenesses with colors recently.

I bought a pair of wool blend pants that always look green to me under incandescent lights at home and then turn brown when I get outside and under the fluorescent lights in the office. I figured it was the incandescent lights adding a yellow tinge. Luckily, the subtle green and brown shirts I coordinate with them always seems to work. I asked Jann what color she thought they were and she said brown.

The keys Jann gave me to her condo have color tags on them. We discussed that the green key always goes it in the top luck. She told me it's blue. We held hers and mine together under different lights and hers seemed bluer, but still more like aqua blue/green to me.

Am I getting color blindness in my old age?
 
I had some issues passing the color vision test at the AME office, but finally passed the divorian (spelling?) I did that 3 years ago, and again this past January. I was told color vision does not get worse, and I had the same issues for both medicals. Didnt get worse.
 
mikea said:
Am I getting color blindness in my old age?
Click to expand...

Mike, I doubt it. You either have it, or you don't. Not a great club to be a member of if you are an aviator.
 
Mike, if you acquire color blindness later in life wherein you can't tell blue from green, it would be preceeded by an automobile accident. REALLY. That sort of developement usually only arises from a BIG TIME retinal problem.

So, I don't think so... :-)
 
I signed up for the Medical Help from http://www.leftseat.com/falant.htm
I failed the lantern test so I was looking for anywhere to get a SODA since I committed to a school for Avation before finding out about my color vision issue.
I am getting slow day to day responses and they originally promised that there was around 10 tests I could take that would be passed by the FAA.
I was told that there is a 95% chance that I would get a first class medical.

I will update.

Does anyone know what other steps I should take?
 
The test you failed are considered "office" test according to the FAA. You can retake the office test with another AME to get the restriction removed. Just don't take the OVCT test. That test can not be removed if you fail.
 
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