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Picked up as pilot, now worried about my eyes!

S

STAGoss

"Easy"
I was picked up FY07 in the STA-21 program as a pilot and passed my physical but now that I am in school I noticed that my eyes are not perfect anymore. I went to a civ. eye doc to check them out and was told that they are real close to 20/20 but not. Can I get PRK while I'm in school or would that disqualify me from pilot or since I'm a prior do my eyes have to be perfect 20/20? Any knowledgeable help would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Your eyes do not have to be a perfect 20/20, they do however need to be 20/40 or below. Can anyone else confirm?
 
20/40 before you get to NAMI. Once you pass NAMI, then 20/100 or better and you're good.

Relax, man. EVERYONE who doesn't have >20/20 worries about their eyes after they finally get picked up. I know I did. I had 20/40... the LIMIT, and I'm in advanced right now. It's not a big mystery. If you're 20/40 or better, you'll be fine.
 
Don't want to make you worry unnecessarily, but you do need 20/40 in each eye individually, not combined. Don't know if that affects you, but it did for me.
 
maybe i am missing something in this thread, your saying collectively that you don't have to have 20/20 to be a pilot?

or do you have to have better than 20/40 at nami and then pretty much anything not to bad after that and your ok
????
 
From the NAMI guide:
Visual Acuity, Distant and Near: Uncorrected visual acuity must not be less than 20/40 each eye, correctable to 20/20 each eye using a Goodlite eye chart. Vision testing procedures shall comply with those outlined on the Aerospace Reference and Waiver Guide Physical Exams section.
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Doesn't specifically state that you have to be 20/20 combined, but if you are in both eyes individually I would imagine you have fine combined acuity. If I have heard correctly you can deteriorate to 20/100 (correctable to 20/20) after you get your wings.
I mentioned the separate thing because for nearsighted people, your combined acuity is usually significantly better than your individual acuities - don't think you have better vision than you really have as they will know at NAMI.
 
OttoWrote8 said:
20/40 before you get to NAMI. Once you pass NAMI, then 20/100 or better and you're good.

Relax, man. EVERYONE who doesn't have >20/20 worries about their eyes after they finally get picked up. I know I did. I had 20/40... the LIMIT, and I'm in advanced right now. It's not a big mystery. If you're 20/40 or better, you'll be fine.
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And if/when you get to the actual NAMI exam in P'cola, have the doc show you which line it is that you need to read to be cleared as 20/40. The letters are absurdly large.
 
OttoWrote8 said:
20/40 before you get to NAMI. Once you pass NAMI, then 20/100 or better and you're good.

Relax, man. EVERYONE who doesn't have >20/20 worries about their eyes after they finally get picked up. I know I did. I had 20/40... the LIMIT, and I'm in advanced right now. It's not a big mystery. If you're 20/40 or better, you'll be fine.
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This is probably true for most cases, but keep in mind that there are also refractive limits. My vision is between 20/30 and 20/40 (depends on the day), but it's all astigmatism which is what got me. There's a link to the medical requirements somewhere around this site, they have all the limits for refraction, phorias, etc if you are worried.
 
Kickflip89 said:
This is probably true for most cases, but keep in mind that there are also refractive limits. My vision is between 20/30 and 20/40 (depends on the day), but it's all astigmatism which is what got me. There's a link to the medical requirements somewhere around this site, they have all the limits for refraction, phorias, etc if you are worried.
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and what happened in your situation in terms of the astigmatism?
 
phrogpilot73 said:
Wow, do deer follow you around licking you because of all the salt? ;)
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Yes. That's why the BASH numbers keep going up at whatever airfield I'm stationed at. That guy in corpus was putting down 2-3 does a day whenever I was on the sked... ;)
 
Kickflip89 said:
I was NPQd for pilot at OCS and transferred to FO. My case is pretty rare, though, as far as I know.
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I would imagine (most of the time) if you're out of limits on astigmatism (is it 1.00 or 1.25?), then you probably wouldn't be able to see 20/40 or better.
 
OttoWrote8 said:
I would imagine (most of the time) if you're out of limits on astigmatism (is it 1.00 or 1.25?), then you probably wouldn't be able to see 20/40 or better.
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Yeah, it just so happens that all of my bad vision comes from astigmatism, and I guess the axis it lines up on allows me to pass the letter test. I've also never failed the depth perception test, and I probably shouldn't be able to pass that with over 1.00 astigmatism.

So, although cases like mine do happen, where they don't catch it until OCS / NAMI, I don't think they are too common.
 
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