Go Noles! Det 145 AFROTC!
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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.]
1 Like
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.
This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.