Top to bottom eye exam for me is $115. I also don't have vision insurance. Could be different for you if you do. There is no guarantee its going to be the same as the ocs flight eye exam though. Close is good for me though.
I ended up having an eye exam conducted as well. I went to one of those national eyeglass store chains (Eyeglass World) and ended up only dropping $65 on the complete exam. I called ahead of time though to ensure they had all necessary equipment, which was a great idea. I brought the checklist that is inside the NAMI waiver packet that has been shared on this forum so the doctor would know the limitations required. The doctor said his location had just received some of the equipment necessary for the Class 1 Flight Physical eye exam earlier this year, so definitely call ahead!
The color vision test was the same as MEPS but the depth perception was different, and much easier. I put on a pair of what looked like 3D glasses and looked for protruding dots from a book he held. I've passed tests both at MEPS and the civilian doctor, but with all the talk of failure throughout this website, I am continually paranoid about that portion of the eye exam. Which leads me to a question,
which depth perception test is used at OCS/Pensacola? At OCS, are you able to take your time with the exam to ensure you are positive with your answer before giving it?
Other tests different than MEPS were:
- the puff test (everyone's favorite)
- a test where you look into a machine at a hot air balloon which gets blurry and then the test is over before you even know what they were doing
- field of vision - basically the doctor holding up his fingers and slowly moving them towards you until you can make out how many fingers he is holding up using your peripheral vision
- dilation - but this dilation was different that those I've had in the past at eye exams. Once the drops were put into my eye, I was instructed to keep my eyes closed for 1 minute and a burning sensation was felt until I was able to open my eyes. Apparently the dilation liquid acts as a muscle relaxer for the part of your eye in charge of near focusing. For about 10 hours after the exam I felt like a 70 year old man and could not read ANYTHING within an arms reach of me. It was actually quite hilarious trying to look at my phone and read texts/emails.
There are likely some other tests that I am failing to mention.