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kwidner

Filing Flight Plan
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Widnerkj
I apologize if the search keeps failing me. I have a question and it's burning me up. I just went and had my eye exam. I've been fearing it, as the outcome is do I go lsa or ppl. I found out today my right eye is perfect, however, my left eye is 20/50. But I have 20/20 uncorrected.
I have wanted to be a pilot since I was 8 years old. Do I need to go get lasik? Or is there a waver for me?
I have been a lurker here for a bit. But the FAA is awful. So I'd like some advise from my cohorts. I've been doing everything I can to land myself in a pic seat. (Currently at school for my A&P so I can whore work for hours on my log sheet)
 
Spec for Class 3 is 20/40 corrected. LASIK? Damn that's overkill. You need a pair of glasses. Not very strong ones either.

There is no way in hell you have 20/20 uncorrected and 20/50 corrected. WTF?

The FAA is awful? These specs are published. Can't blame the FAA for that. But you could read 14 CFR 67.303. You haven't bothered....obviously.
 
Eye doctor said I'm 20/50 in my left eye. But 20/20 uncorrected

FAA is still better than DOE, So I'm ok with it. Sorry for the pity me thread. I had read no worse than 20/40. So I was a little sad. Insurance covers lasik. Just wondering if I'd have to let a doc play with a laser to fly. I'm still very green
 
You've got that backwards. Uncorrected means without wearing glasses. There is no requirement for uncorrected vision. If you can get 20/40 without glasses, that's fine. If you can get 20/40 with glasses, all that means is you get the "MUST WEAR CORRECTIVE LENSES" restriction. LASIK is not required. If you do get LASIK subsequently, you can get the above restriction removed.
 
Thank you flyingiron. That is the question I needed answered


I'll make the appointment for my medical.
 
You're fine. My left eye is 20/50 corrected! I got a SODA (Statement of demonstrated ability) for my eyesight. All I had to do was go up with an FAA inspector, prove that I could spot planes in air, and then do an engine out landing from 3,000 ft AGL directly above the runway. (I guess to prove depth perception.) After that, not a problem.
 
There are many posts here and on the AOPA forum of gotcha's on the medical. It might be a good thing to educate yourself on those before you go for your exam. Dealing with stuff before the exam is much easier than when you've opened pandora's box via an exam. Things like medical issues, mental issues, ADHD and all the derivatives, DUIs, other arrests, SSRIs can be a problem for the medical exam. Hopefully you don't have anything to hold you back, but it is better to know ahead of time and be proactive, rather than get denied and have to be reactive. Dr Bruce Chien monitors here occasionally and answers questions if you have any. Plus most members are helpful too, but if there is a problem, Dr Chien can tell you how to solve it if a solution is possible. Best of luck.
 
MAKG1 said:
Spec for Class 3 is 20/40 corrected. LASIK? Damn that's overkill. You need a pair of glasses. Not very strong ones either.

There is no way in hell you have 20/20 uncorrected and 20/50 corrected. WTF?

The FAA is awful? These specs are published. Can't blame the FAA for that. But you could read 14 CFR 67.303. You haven't bothered....obviously.
Click to expand...

You're on a bully roll today MAKG. :rolleyes:
 
I am blind as a bat without glasses. As in I can't even identify the big "E" during an eye exam. 20/20 with glasses and the class 3 has been a non-issue.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The office helper performing the eye exam for me wasn't amused when she asked me to read the smallest line on the eye chart I could, backwards. And my response was

"A-N-I-H-C-N-I-E-D-A-M"
Click to expand...

You must have gotten one of those docs who bought a new eye machine sometime in the last 50 years.

I like my doc but he falls into that category that Bruce wants to beat over the head who haven't updated their eyeball machines and charts in 50 years.

Or at least long enough that all of the color vision charts are deep yellow tint over the colors intended for the test, and all of the "black and white" letter size pages are more like yellow and black. Dim yellowed bulb too.

I'd recommend him highly to anyone EXCEPT anyone who might be borderline in color blindness. His gear isn't even close to appropriate for that test.

His probably still say "A-S-U-N-I-E-D-A-M", but they suck bad.

His hearing test booth is straight out of my childhood elementary school memories with those lovely rubber headsets and earpieces, but those haven't changed much over the years. No telling the last time it was calibrated to anything though. Probably old enough that the capacitors aren't leaking in the audio circuits, and the rheostats used for level setting are built well enough they don't crackle and aren't out of spec. It's like a sound insulated phone booth. For those who remember phone booths, that is. It has thirty year old cartoons stuck to the glass.

I wonder what the 20-somethings think of his ancient test equipment? I'm unimpressed but they don't cause me any trouble.
 
Just my opinion, I could be wrong - but I'd get refracted and buy glasses before letting someone take a high energy laser or other power tool, etc., to my healthy eyeball(s).
 
Stingray Don said:
I am blind as a bat without glasses. As in I can't even identify the big "E" during an eye exam. 20/20 with glasses and the class 3 has been a non-issue.
Click to expand...

My wife used to be that way. She was like 20/200 (what chart?) uncorrected. Her first AME told her she should carry two spare pairs of glasses when she flew. She got LASIK'd and now has no vision restriction on her medical.
 
Sundancer said:
Just my opinion, I could be wrong - but I'd get refracted and buy glasses before letting someone take a high energy laser or other power tool, etc., to my healthy eyeball(s).
Click to expand...

I told my wife they'd have to give me way more than the 20mg of valium they gave her before they could even get those tongs in my eyelids. That was before my wife pretty much had a whole slew of LASIK complications.
 
flyingron said:
I told my wife they'd have to give me way more than the 20mg of valium they gave her before they could even get those tongs in my eyelids. That was before my wife pretty much had a whole slew of LASIK complications.
Click to expand...

Wow! I never realized LASIK etc. could lead to depression and suicide. After seeing your post I did some superficial research, and I don't blame you at all. I guess it's a huge money maker, so much of the negative information is suppressed for obviou$ rea$on$.
 
RotorDude said:
Wow! I never realized LASIK etc. could lead to depression and suicide. After seeing your post I did some superficial research, and I don't blame you at all. I guess it's a huge money maker, so much of the negative information is suppressed for obviou$ rea$on$.
Click to expand...

Damn, so glad I didn't get Lasik done after my eye doc told me I was an excellent candidate. I asked him why he hadn't had it done, he gave me some long story about how being nearsighted helps him in his job. I told him to let me know when he gets it done and I would think about it.

That said, I know people who have had it done and love it.
 
flyingron said:
I told my wife they'd have to give me way more than the 20mg of valium they gave her before they could even get those tongs in my eyelids. That was before my wife pretty much had a whole slew of LASIK complications.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on that one.... Reminds me of one part of the movie, "A Clockwork Orange"

I worked with a guy once that could not recognize his friends in a room without his glasses, and barely could with glasses. Riding with him in a car was extreme terror. I don't think he could even see the lines in the road. ATP rated.

I never figured out how he passed the vision part. Unless he had the charts memorized.....
 
My wife thought the clock I bought that projected the time on the ceiling was a dumb purchase until she got LASIK and realized how handy it was if you could actually see it.
 
DEFPOTEC worked for me quite a few times, just to keep the corrective lenses off my medical. After a few decades, I let it go. . .
 
AggieMike88 said:
The office helper performing the eye exam for me wasn't amused when she asked me to read the smallest line on the eye chart I could, backwards. And my response was

"A-N-I-H-C-N-I-E-D-A-M"
Click to expand...
I usually, when I'm in a smart-aleck mood, say, "C-O-P-Y-R-I-G-H-T- 1-9-4-8"

"What? It was the smallest line on there!"
 
flyingron said:
I told my wife they'd have to give me way more than the 20mg of valium they gave her before they could even get those tongs in my eyelids. That was before my wife pretty much had a whole slew of LASIK complications.
Click to expand...
I had RK (where they take a scalpel and cut your cornea), and the valium did the trick. It was like being drunk with no hangover, and as the good citizens of many beach towns in Florida and the city of Phoenix, AZ can attest, me being drunk is a pretty funny thing to watch.
 
Jeffythequick said:
I usually, when I'm in a smart-aleck mood, say, "C-O-P-Y-R-I-G-H-T- 1-9-4-8"

"What? It was the smallest line on there!"
Click to expand...

Next time I might stick a card with something I wrote behind the chart when no one is looking. Then when the nurse challenges me, I tell her to go look. Then explain that I recently developed x-ray vision.
 
kwidner said:
Eye doctor said I'm 20/50 in my left eye. But 20/20 uncorrected

FAA is still better than DOE, So I'm ok with it. Sorry for the pity me thread. I had read no worse than 20/40. So I was a little sad. Insurance covers lasik. Just wondering if I'd have to let a doc play with a laser to fly. I'm still very green
Click to expand...
20/20 uncorrected in the left eye alone? Or 20/20 using both eyes at once? I'm guessing he meant the latter, since you have 20/20 in the right eye and what you wrote doesn't make sense otherwise. Note that you still have to make 20/40 in each eye SEPARATELY, with correction if necessary. If you really are 20/50 best corrected vision in the left eye, then I believe that would require a SODA, as someone else posted.
 
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