3rd class med with night restriction for colorblindness

Wade

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
129
Location
Boise Idaho
Display Name

Display name:
Maxcat
Took my Brother in Law flying and he is hooked. He went and got his medical and was diagnosed with color blindness. AME gave him 3rd class medical with a night restriction. So can he still get his PPL with a night restriction since all the night requirements are dual instruction?
Or does he have to get a SODA or will he be limited to Sport Pilot?
 
Took my Brother in Law flying and he is hooked. He went and got his medical and was diagnosed with color blindness. AME gave him 3rd class medical with a night restriction. So can he still get his PPL with a night restriction since all the night requirements are dual instruction?
Or does he have to get a SODA or will he be limited to Sport Pilot?
He is not a PIC during his night lessons, so.... I am thinking that shudnt be a problem. Dunno

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
He can still get his PPL, just can't fly at night after he gets his license.

There are a couple methods to lift that restriction. One, and this is debatable, but was uttered by an AME, is to just drop down to BasicMED after he has his license. It's an interesting loophole.

The more legal method is to perform the lightgun test under FAA supervision. The catch is that you only get one shot at it. You fail that, the restriction is on your license forever.

He can (and should) try to get this removed. Night flying is awesome. Dr. Bruce Chien or the aviationexaminer website guy.
 
This is an area where Dr. Bruce has all the duck lined up. He has multiple acceptable tests and even the plates are high-quality unfaded ones and he administers the test in ample natural light.

You don't want to go for the light gun test unless you are sure you will pass. It's a one shot deal.
 
-when I did it, (not saying how long ago, forget it) - we had the choice of day or night. Night was 10x easier than day.
-we also could go out and practice beforehand (being a stupid 17 yo I never thought I needed to practice
-right before the test, the examiner asked for the three lights to be shot at us 2x with the 'answer' provided.
-I passed, I feel really lucky now.
-I received a waiver letter of some sorts which I was told to Never Lose and I do provide it at each medical exam (I have copies everywhere including in the cloud now).

-I firmly don't believe the Fedex Tallahassee crash in 2002 had anything to do with colorblindness (how could the two other pilots aboard also completely miss the papi; the pilot was exhausted during this dark, early morning flight; the T/DP spread was zero with few100 reported; the approach was completely unstable; plus it would be normal human behavior for a pilot to quickly blame something other than his piloting failures; there have been no other reports that I could find in the last 50+ years blaming color blindness on an accident.)
 
Something to ask the brother-in-law...

What form of color blindness did the AME declare he had?

For that form/type, is the type of color shirt or blindness typical of what he sees in daily life?

How was the test administered? There are several ways where the deck could have been stacked against him, including not doing the Ishara plates in natural sunlight.

https://nei.nih.gov/health/color_blindness/facts_about
 
I have the same restriction so I am familiar with the options. Yes, he can train and get his PPL no problem. He simply will not be able to fly at night as PIC due to the restriction on his medical. His options are:

1) find a good AME like Dr Chen that has several of the approved vision tests and see if he can pass one of them, thus removing the restriction off his medical. Note that he will have to do this every 5 or 2 years every time he renews his medical.
2) Let his medical elapse and go with Basic Med. It's up to your brother in law to self certify that his color blindness is not a hinderance to flying safely at night.
3) Obtain a SODA from the FAA. You meet with an FAA guy, you look over a sectional and he makes sure you can see and point out the different colors on the sectional. Then you go to an airport during the day and take the light gun signal test. If you pass, you have a lifetime exemption to the color vision test on future medicals. If you fail, you have the option of retaking the light gun test at night. If you pass, your restriction reads something to the effect of "Not valid for daytime flying by color signals". You are allowed to fly at night, the only restrictionis you cannot fly by color signals in the day. Example: Your loose coms during the day at a class D airport, the tower realizes you are NORDO and gives you light gun signals. A normal pilot would follow the signals and land. A person with this restriction would not be legal to land and have to go to a untowered field (if safe to do so of course.) If you fail the daytime and nighttime signal gun test, you have a permanent restriction placed on you and you will never be able to fly as PIC at night. As you can see, with such high stakes, going for the waver is the last straw, and only take it if you are sure you can pass.
 
I got an email from a "childrenscolorado.com" email address. I responded and it bounced back, so if the B-I-L is in this string, he pooched typing in his email address (I cut and pasted the email for the reply).

Wade, would you tell him so he can try again,?
 
Last edited:
I did the light gun test. No issues. Have his flight instructor request light signals from the tower. He'll know then.

Like "let's go flying" I can attest that there is no way that FedEx accident was caused by a guy being color blind. First off, Ray Charles could properly interpret any VASI or PAPI - and, the theory absolves every other set of eyes on that approac
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top