Surgical hardware's impact on a USAF recruit?

Yes...all true...but very strange medical things have happened in
the Canadian Military. We once had a very experienced VPCC
(Maritime Patrol Crew Captain) lose sight in one eye when he 'bit
the dust' in Bermuda while driving a moped (what ASW guy doesn't
know those?). Anyhow, he cracked his skull which cut off one
optic nerve. They instantly grounded him and installed him into
an LMD in OPS. He fought tooth and nail for a couple of years and
got reinstated. I know him well, great guy, I was still amazed at
his accomplishments. I've never heard of any other. Last I heard
of him he was an Instructor Pilot at the school in Greenwood.

I am a one-eyed pilot, and there are many others, including the late
great Wiley Post. Loss of vision in one eye doesn't disqualify an
airline pilot either.

I did have to take a "medical flight check" with an FAA examiner, who
asked me how high the cloud layer was and what was that stuff on the
athletic field below us, then said: "I'm going to give you a SODA."
(What? All this and he's buying me a Pepsi?)

(Statement of Demonstrated Ability)


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Not to sound too negative but there's a huge difference in what
the Military will accept when you're already a member and before
you are one.

I know, having battled a high-pitch hearing loss at every annual
aircrew medical for years.
--

-Gord.



Hi Gord.

You're not sounding negative. In fact, your comments are appropriate to this
thread. I entered the Academy with 20/20 vision and graduated with 20/50
vision. I still attended and graduated UPT along with many other classmates
who were in this situation.

I offered the information to the original poster to assist in their decision
making process and to reassure them that their situation did not have a black
and white outcome.





Kurt Todoroff


Markets, not mandates and mob rule.
Consent, not compulsion.

Remove "DELETEME" from my address to reply

Cub Driver wrote:


Yes...all true...but very strange medical things have happened in
the Canadian Military. We once had a very experienced VPCC
(Maritime Patrol Crew Captain) lose sight in one eye when he 'bit
the dust' in Bermuda while driving a moped (what ASW guy doesn't
know those?). Anyhow, he cracked his skull which cut off one
optic nerve. They instantly grounded him and installed him into
an LMD in OPS. He fought tooth and nail for a couple of years and
got reinstated. I know him well, great guy, I was still amazed at
his accomplishments. I've never heard of any other. Last I heard
of him he was an Instructor Pilot at the school in Greenwood.

I am a one-eyed pilot, and there are many others, including the late
great Wiley Post. Loss of vision in one eye doesn't disqualify an
airline pilot either.


Well Dan, it sure as hell grounded this one, whether wrongly is
another question though, one thing that it does of course is
narrows your peripheral vision on the blind side.

I did have to take a "medical flight check" with an FAA examiner, who
asked me how high the cloud layer was and what was that stuff on the
athletic field below us, then said: "I'm going to give you a SODA."
(What? All this and he's buying me a Pepsi?)

(Statement of Demonstrated Ability)


all the best -- Dan Ford

And by that test he demonstrated his lack of knowledge about
'depth of vision'. I tried to find the data but haven't yet but
I'm pretty sure that the maximum 'depth of vision' for a human is
something like 18 feet so you didn't need your 'depth of vision'
to judge the height of the clouds.
--

-Gord.

I am a one-eyed pilot, and there are many others, including the late
great Wiley Post. Loss of vision in one eye doesn't disqualify an
airline pilot either.


Well Dan, it sure as hell grounded this one, whether wrongly is
another question though, one thing that it does of course is
narrows your peripheral vision on the blind side.

I am sorry to hear it. (In my case, I do have peripheral vision, but
as you suggest below, the FAA guy didn't really grasp the difficulties
posed by having good vision in only one eye.)

I did have to take a "medical flight check" with an FAA examiner, who
asked me how high the cloud layer was and what was that stuff on the
athletic field below us, then said: "I'm going to give you a SODA."

And by that test he demonstrated his lack of knowledge about
'depth of vision'. I tried to find the data but haven't yet but
I'm pretty sure that the maximum 'depth of vision' for a human is
something like 18 feet so you didn't need your 'depth of vision'
to judge the height of the clouds.

He was still at it after we landed: "How tall is that flag pole?"

Where my lack of binocular vision really hurts is when I'm running the
Cub into a tie-down slot. I can't tell how far my wing-tip is from the
next guy's wing-tip.

Getting through life with just one eye is really a job of working
experience into habit. It took me a number of years to learn to
parallel-park a car.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com