Do I have to have 20/20 vision to get a license?
From FlightSim
[Ed: FF, or Flying Fox, who replies below, is an Aviation Medical Examiner, or AME]
Q:
Just wondering, Do you have to have 20:20 vision to be a pilot or can you be long or short sighted (with prescription glasses of course!)?
Any info appreciated,
Thanks
Kelburn
A:
In the United States you can get a class 3 medical with 20-40 corrected vision. With the class 2 and 1 you need 20-20 corrected near and far vision which means that some pilots that have trouble reading but have 20-20 distance vision have to wear glasses.
There are more requirements that must be met besides the 20-40,20-20. It pays to read the reg bfore you decide to learn to fly. Drugs that doctors routinely prescribe for conditions that people think nothing about taking can disqualify you. Your best course of action if you are thinking about learning to fly, is to join the AOPA and fill out the same form online that you would in the doctors office and see if you would qualify. The AOPA has a list of drugs that you are not allowed to take and fly, and a few that are allowed
Bob K.
This is nicely simplified, but I would add one more thing,
While I certify pilots several times a year with vision of 20/40, it is not ideal. The sad fact of life is that vision is a very important thing in aviation. The difference between reaction times in a person flying with 20/40 visual acuity and 20/20 can be substantial and it is based upon recognition distance.
The important thing that I tell pilots is that they need to have the best visual acuity possible in their correction. I am a 20/400 myope. That accounts for about 8.5 diopters. That means that a 20/20 person can see clearly at 400 feet what I need to be within 20 feet of to see well. Nice eh? Kind of expains why I like flying IFR best of all.
My correction however is 20/15 which means that I see at 20 feet clearly what a normally sighted (20/20) person sees clearly at 15 feet. It does make a difference in the air.
As well, we myopes have a little advantage as we get older because we tend to accommodate, that is 'focus' on close objects, better than our perfectly sighter peers, so that still in my 40s I am not wearing bifocals, but it is coming.
Another very important thing is peripheral vision. I cannot stress the importance of that enough. You need to have a good feeling for your peripheral vision and this can be tricky in 'low-index' lenses. Big thick glasses (like I used to wear) will narrow considerably the viewing angle a person has because of the way that their optics work.
With the advent of high index lenses, not only did they get substantially lighter, but the portion of the lense useful for looking through with clear vision increased dramatically.
I used to fly with contacts, which if they didn't pose so many other problems, are ideal. They correct distance and give perfect peripheral vision. Unfortunately, after a year of flying part 135, my eyes would dry out so badly that I could only wear them for about 6 hours before I had to shed them for glasses. Now I just fly with glasses.
Flying is expensive and so are eyeglasses, but they are probably a better insurance policy than a parachute in the long run. So find a good optician and tell them what you want to do with flying and pay for a good set of eyeglasses. Tell them that you want 20/20 or better vision when corrected.
As far as the medication list, and I am an AOPA member so I am not dogging them, the medication is not nearly as important as the condition. The best option is to find an aeromedical examiner, tell them what condition you have, and then work out the waiver details.
I have pilots on medications that are waivered because the condition that they have is not a problem, while I have other pilots on similar medications who are working through disqualification because the condition that they have is a problem with safe flight.
FF
