This is long overdue, since the Ishihara is pretty useless unless it’s done under exactly the same conditions every time, and if I’m understanding the FAA response to Avweb correctly, dropping the requirement for a new color vision test every time is also significant progress, since color vision usually doesn’t change appreciably, so the old/current requirements are wasting a lot of time and probably generating more than a few false positives if the Ishihara was used incorrectly.
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This is also great for pilots who use alternate tests that may not be easily available in their areas. I have a former student who had to come to Phoenix for a color vision test from the midwest every year.
A huge hassle and undue stress for a static condition!
So… is the FAA going to provide color-calibrated displays to proctor these tests on? Enforce the monitor is warmed up and recalibrated periodically? I’d hate to be the guy who’s doc had a 15 year old TN display with color so bad it looked like an Andy Worhal painting.
Seriously, this is important.
At least with printed materials they can make sure they’re correct when created. Even if they do need to be replaced periodically.
The good-existing pilots who passed a color test or have a waiver are grandfathered
the bad:-new applicants have to pass one of 3 computerized vision tests that most AMEs don’t have .If they fail in the past they had a night restriction or cannot fly by light gun signals now they are going to get issued only a class 3 medical with the restriction for daytime VFR ONLY!
I also had trouble with that outdated testing. One examiner flagged me on it, took away my night flying abilities, and sent everything into the FAA accordingly. I had to go through hell to rectify everything.
The examiner didn’t tell me that there’s other testing methods out there, other than the Isiharia format. I had to find one through an eye doctor, pass their test, resubmit everything, and get my night flying restrictions removed.
This tool about a year. All at my own expenses.
A Wise decision, even more as the Ishihara test cartoons for color blindness, daltonism or dyschromatopsia, cost a lot of money.
Many won’t believe this, but the ‘Szondi test’, providing some info about personality features, exists in automated version in the web, and is reliable enough.
PMID 9881538 Is also of interest.
Blessings +
Are you seriously implying the Szondi test is reliable? I suggest not, anytime you cannot empirically correlate the data the entire test becomes an exercise in ego building for those who demand to be the gate keepers of the results. Hence why the test is now computerized and empirically driven.
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That was my thought as well. Monitors also degrade over time; how much and at rate depends a lot of the specific model. So is the FAA also mandating certain brands/models? If so, that will add to the cost. If not, then there will still be plenty of invalid results leading to unnecessary deferrals.
You may be right, I may be krazee, but I’d say automated, self-administered Szondi test deserves reassessment.
FAA was concerned about ways to detect a manic pilot before engaging into reckless actions, I don’t know the state of this screening right now.
Fourier transform analysis of EEG? Brain PET-TAC? Functional NMR Imaging?
Who knows?
Gesund +
“Although it’s unusual, it is possible to become colour blind later in life through different diseases or eye conditions. These diseases can damage the optic nerve or the retina of the eye and lead to acquired colour blindness, also known as acquired colour vision deficiency” Also consideration should be made that perhaps the person has been on the verge of colour blindness over time and this is the year the threshold was crossed. WOuld be far better to have an ophthalmologist comment on this.
52 years ago at the ripe age of 18 I went for my first FAA medical while pursuing my private certificate at TLH. At that point I had no inkling I had any color vision problems at all and certainly no problem delineating different colors in the environment. I’d never taken the Ishihara test, so I had no idea what to expect. I was a little shocked when I had trouble picking out numbers and letters in the book as the examiner turned the pages. As a result, I failed the test. I don’t know if it was standard procedure at that point or I just had a nice AME, but he offered to take me out to the approach end of RWY 27 at TLH and have the tower shoot light guns at me. I got 99 out of 100 correct. I think I missed one out of boredom? Regardless, I got my color vision waiver, and maintained it for all these years. I got a couple of odd looks when I pulled it out for medical exams along the years, but nobody ever questioned it.
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I’ve found them rather easy to see at night. During the day is a bit more difficult, but not impossible.
However, color is used for more than just the light gun signals. For instance, a common red/green colorblindness means the nav lights on aircraft won’t serve their purpose for such a pilot. Chart coloring also would be affected.
So there are actually a number of reasons why colorblindedness should be tested for. But remember that it’s not necessarily disqualifying; one can still demonstrate that they can still operate fine (SODA).
It’s worth noting that FAA was dragged, reluctantly, into this by the NTSB’s highly questionable interpretation of the causes of an air carrier accident 25 years ago. To her great credit, Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Susan Northrup delayed this change until she was assured it would have as little impact as possible. All currently certified pilots, including those with SODA’s or Letters of Eligibility will be grandfathered, and will not have to take these new tests. The new tests will primarily be one-and-done for new applicants.
Of the three, two are very expensive - $5000 and nearly $10,000 respectively. But the Waggoner test is an app that can be downloaded to an iPad or Android tablet, and the $30/month subscription, while annoying, is not prohibitive.
Most AMEs believe that the old system - any of the books or devices, backed up with a light gun test from the tower, were sufficient. But the NTSB was relentless in their insistence that FAA “do something,” so, with as little impact as possible, they have.
As an AFROTC cadet at FSU in 1972, I went up to Moody AFB for my first AF physical and flunked the Ishihara test (the greenish,grayish, mauve pages) and had to take an additional colored light test. Never knew I had a color problem.
Passed it and never looked back. Did my FIP training at TLH.
Go Noles! Det 145 AFROTC!
I’ve had a couple of light signals from a tower. One was when I turned onto a taxi way instead of an active (red) and the other was when I lost ship’s power inflight, but I had flight following) so as the battery went flat and I lost my radios I was above the destination airport and I got a steady green. (ATC called the destination and advised there is an aircraft coming in that lost its radios after I had reported loss of function prior to losing the radios entirely).
The lights worked for me … I want to keep that system, just in case.
Do not kid yourself. The FAA has authorized 3 and only three every expensive tests. In a memo dated 2023, the acting deputy federal air surgeon wrote to AMEs,“Note that under the proposed new policy, the testing FREQUENCY WILL DECREASE.”
The Acting DFAS goes on to list the prices of these “new and improved” tests, $8,828.82, $3995, or $999.00. So, the FAA says, you have to buy these new tests, they will be not used very much and absorbe the overhead. When challenged by the costs of this, the FAA says to AMES, “we don’t set your prices, and you should make money on these exams.” This is true, but they do set our overhead and I invested in equipment the FAA says is necessary, including the present color vision testing (Ishihara and the correct color and intensity lamp), EKG machines and the like. Now, machines that cost 10-100 times the present test costs. Pilots can expect their initial medical certificates to cost substantially more, unless they want to be restricted to day, VFR flight and a Class 3 medical.
Now as for send you to another location (neuro-opthalmology is the most likely referral), that will not be cheap, will be time consuming and will discourage pilots from pursuing that initial private pilot certificate. You will pay for the consultation and the test if I know how things like this generally work.
I did a quick survey shortly after the seminar, of all the optometrists and opthalmologists in my county and the next county and NONE of them had the FAA approved tests. I went further and called my colleages at Kellogg Eye Center at the University of Michigan and Wilmer at Johns Hopkins and neither of the two top ranked eye care centers used any of the FAA approved tests.
So, what will happen? AMEs will not eat this cost, some will say enough and there are other changes coming that I think are actually worse. This will create a greater shortage of AMEs and the prices will go up.
Some AMEs will fork out the cash, but will need to recover the cost and new student pilot starts will be creamed with yet another extra cost of a vision exam resulting from an accident with multiple causes in 2003, blamed on a 16 year Navy pilot FO not being able to properly read a PAPI because of defective color vision, while flying with a 16000 hour ATP who landed short.
For my practice, I’ll offer the Class 3 with/without the new vision test and the restriction, and buy the best deal I can get, but I will have to charge probably an extra 75-100 bucks to cover the cost of the stuff. No one within 500 miles of me has this equipment including the big Universities that I can find. So send outs with all that entails is not an option. For First & Second, new issuances, they have no choice.
And then there’s the new FAA Special issuance policy…don’t even get me started.
That was not clear from the discussion. I think they said it will be up to the FSDOs who administer those tests. But I think it will be an option.
For changes that will be made in three weeks, surely there is more substantial and authoritative reference material available than an “online educational session” to only one side of the equation?! I have seen mention in the comments of lamp intensity and color which constitutes at least some specification control over the current testing technology. Is the new testing technology dependent on custom spec’d and certified hardware? The comment that the Waggoner app can be downloaded to a smartphone doesn’t indicate whether such is for self-evaluation or can be formally used by AMEs. At the very least, some insight is needed into how current and future testing equipment is initially certified and periodically calibrated to help produce valid results. Do the FARs cover this? I’d have expected a NPRM by now.
This logic makes no sense, the plate test is dependent on ambient lighting but the computerized test is dependent on a calibrated monitor. I’ve been doing digital photography and retouching for decades and a calibrated monitor is crucial for accurate color reproduction, let alone assessing someone’s vision in a way that could make or break their career!
Further, you can’t trust the FSDO to do a SODA test correctly. A younger me was naive and didn’t know that, I may be a commercial pilot today if it weren’t for that fact. At 18, I didn’t bother to look at the regulations for the procedure until after it all happened, but the person who administered the daytime signal light test I failed did not follow procedure at all, and I’m confident that I would have passed if it weren’t for how badly it was performed. I passed the night time test easily.
I work in the clinical laboratory industry, where colorblindness (color discernment) testing is also mandatory per government regs. Almost every lab method/instrument we use to produce clinical lab results requires color recognition/discernment in one or many critical steps. Given that 1 in 12 males (1 in 200 females) exhibit colorblindness due to genetic makeup, the concern real and significant. Perhaps you have visited the website for Enchroma, which offers colorblindness testing and provides categorization if the test is positive. That said, the same problem exists in that all monitors are not color calibrated to a standard initially and certainly not periodically. It would be interesting to see results of testing performed on the same person using several different monitors.
Enchroma’s work product is color correction glasses. These glasses have provided colorblind candidates the ability to enter the field of lab science and be just as successful as their non-colorblind counterparts. My guess is that corrective glasses of this nature are prohibited in the field of aviation. I do not work for Enchroma, but I invite you to check out the website. There is some fascinating information on this topic.
This will prevent a lot of accidents.
How many? Are the current tests so deficient that color-blindness is commonly listed as the cause (or contributing factor) in accident reports?
[This sounds to me like a good justification for the “Two-For-One” policy.]
I had advanced as far as getting a Commercial SEL rating before anyone stated that I had defective color vision. The US Army gave me an alternative test which I passed and went on to fly with them for a few years. In my pursuit of an airline career, I eventually got one of those waivers using the “light gun” test. That got attached to the 1st class medical that I maintained for 30+ years, flying for three different airlines. In all this time {23,000 hrs.}, I never had any negative experiences regarding my “defective color vision.” The only issues that I can recall now that I’m more involved in aircraft restoration are with some color coded wiring…and I leave that work to someone else.
I said that facetiously. I am old school color test and old school interlocutor eye test with the pressure gauge on the eye via Army flight school in 1969.