eye exam for flight physical

[kann]

Does anyone know what kind of eye exam is given for the flight physical? Is it just like the eye exam that is given at a optometrist's office? My eye doctor was telling me they probably use something called a topographer to see the shape of the eye.
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kel

[mcm114]

http://usasam.amedd.army.mil/_AAMA/index.htm

Check out the tech bulletins, or look it up in AR-40-501.

Are you worried about something in particular?

[kann]

Yes, I have a lot of fear that I won't be able to pass the vision portion of the flight physical. I'm going to try and apply for an exception to policy for the lasik surgery. But the exception to policy doesn't allow you to go beyond -6.00 diopters of correction. I need a little more than that to get the 20/50 of uncorrected vision.

I know there are other things that I could try but I'm not sure what the flight physcians will be looking for. I've heard of something called Ortho-k lenses which will temporarily reshape the eye. You would wear the lenses at night and take them off during the day and in some cases you end up with 20/20 vision. Gradually over time you can wear the lenses less and less at night but I don't think it permanently reshapes the eyes.

Would achieving 20/20 or 20/50 through the ortho-k method be okay to pass the flight physical? or would this be questioned? My doctor was saying that if they use a topographer they may be able to tell the true shape of my eye and realize that I'm using ortho-k lenses and fail me.

This seems hopeless. Has anyone taken a flight physical and knows what they do during the eye exam?

thanks, I would appreciate any input.

kann
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kel

[trafficmp]

Don't worry dude, I am sweating the eye thing too. I just got PRK, the predecessor to LASIK but was well within the correction limits. If you get eye surgery, consider the fact that PRK is accepted and may or may not require the waiver depending on which component you are applying to. PRK takes longer to heal and is more "uncomfortable" but LASIK is less likely to get approved. Something to consider.

As far as the physical is concerned....

They are going check you distant visualy accuity to see if you are 20/50 or better. But, just because you are in fact 20/50 does not mean that you are going to get approved to fly. You have to take the astigmatism into accounf as well. I found this out first hand.

Theywill dialate your eyes to check for corneal degeneration and the presence of cataracts as well as shape etc. You will do a red light test to make sure that you are not color blind. You will also do a 3D ring test to test your depth perception. take your time on this one especially. You cannot miss a single one. You can move your ehad, squint, do whatever you have to do to get the right answer. JUST TAKE YOUR TIME.

Other than that bro, it is a if you have ever been to an eye exam with a regular doctor it is pretty much the same. They may have added or taken away a few things, I don't know.

Hope this helps!

[kann]

Trafficmp,

thanks for the recent posting. I needed that.

It's funny because that was the day I got my prk surgery done, jan 9th. I'm still recovering from it right now and it's still a little blurry. I was just thinking I should have gone for lasik instead and I would be able to see just fine right now. Then the recent posting came. It was encouraging and reminds me why I did it.

Anyway, I guess you already went through the whole flight physical. Did you get your results yet? You've already gone through basic training and either WOCS or OCS? I have a long ways to go with basic scheduled for April 13th and I still have my AFAST that I'll probably do right before basic. My mos is OCS so sometime after basic I'll go to ocs. All of this for flight school!

Good luck with everything and thanks again.