Ya know...even though I fall within the "new" standards for SNA... I've been comfortable w/ being close to blind for so long, I never even considered pilot. I actually don't feel bad one bit... I'd rather be an NFO.
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New Vision Standards
- Thread starter Scamahmrd
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USNAClassof2009
Banned
Wow! USNA requires the majority of their appointees to have near-perfect vision. That is presumably to increase how many students are eligible to fly. With PRK available to juniors, you would think they would have already changed this policy. This waver here allowing new pilots with bad vision to fly without PRK surgery, what with the USNA getting a lot of pilot slots, along with the fact that PRK is available as well, could force some changes in the admissions policies.
Well, I am dumbstruck. How long have freakin contacts been around? And how long have they been telling people 20/20, then 20/40? Here I was, too cheap and too much of a wimp for PRK, just letting my eyes take me NFO, now they say I could have been a pilot if i was getting commissioned a semester later. Eh, whatever. SNFO pride.
I can hear the strain of flood gates opening. If you are a designated SNFO that now has the eyesight for SNA, and think you can switch, take a breath. If you had a class date several months away, probably BDCP guys, and they were still short of pilots and fat on NFOs it may be possible. Now what do you think the odds are of that? If you are going to class much sooner it would take some very late opening pilot quotas and a guy willing to ship right away. I will not say a SNFO/SNA change could not happen. Simply consider that the Navy has slotted you to be a NFO some months or years down the road. You are part of complex manning decisions that effect the fleet. They will not change a thing unless it suits the needs of the Navy. They will have to need pilots much more then the need NFOs at the time. Both conditions must be met. Just because there were plenty SNFOs in the pipeline does not ensure a change to pilot unless there was a concurrent critical need for SNAs. Whatever you do, be patient with your recruiters. This news came as just a surprise to them.
admittedly, i have not read the link, but i'm going to ask you guys a question anyway:
contacts can be a royal pain in the a$$-- you have to keep them clean, and people constantly show up at dr's offices w/ temporary blindness from wearing them overnight, not cleaning properly, etc. additionally they tear pretty easily, dry out, and fall out for no good reason, and can cause almost incapacitating pain, should you get something between one and your cornea.
should they make it through the violence of an ejection, and not dry out/fall out/ fold up in your eye and stick that way, and due to more unfortunate circumstances, you have to ee, who is going to want to:
1. remember glasses, if they don't break
2. slow down to mess with contacts? what if you lose one or both?
and God help you if you end up in a hollywood sandstorm....
contacts can be a royal pain in the a$$-- you have to keep them clean, and people constantly show up at dr's offices w/ temporary blindness from wearing them overnight, not cleaning properly, etc. additionally they tear pretty easily, dry out, and fall out for no good reason, and can cause almost incapacitating pain, should you get something between one and your cornea.
should they make it through the violence of an ejection, and not dry out/fall out/ fold up in your eye and stick that way, and due to more unfortunate circumstances, you have to ee, who is going to want to:
1. remember glasses, if they don't break
2. slow down to mess with contacts? what if you lose one or both?
and God help you if you end up in a hollywood sandstorm....
I've been wearing them for >10 years and they really aren't that big a deal. I've never had any problems with them while flying. Obviously, if you get out of a jet, all bets are off, but there are a thousand things that can go wrong with that evolution, so in the grand scheme, it's not something I worry about.snow85 said:
Brett
Looking at that page, I'm having a hard time interpreting whether or not they mean that the standards have been lowered or if they're just writing in a standard for the wear of contacts while maintaining the old standards for visual acuity. I'd love any clarification anyone could offer given that I've got an appointment with the laser in 10 days.
My impression was it had been this way for at least a year now...
Went in for my first flight physical in Jan. '04 thinking I was 20/20, doc said left eye was actually 20/25 but that it was OK since they had already pushed it back to 20/40
couldn't check the link at first post so didn't see if there was a date on there
Went in for my first flight physical in Jan. '04 thinking I was 20/20, doc said left eye was actually 20/25 but that it was OK since they had already pushed it back to 20/40
couldn't check the link at first post so didn't see if there was a date on there
Mayday
I thought that was the recline!
FOLKS:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's an SNA waiver, not an NA waiver. In other words, fully-winged Naval Aviators ain't gonna be running around with contacts, "evading capture if shot down" and all that.
To put even more plainly, contacts are going get you an up-chit to get you at least into the air pipeline, so that maybe while waiting in the pool right after a stage like AI or Primary you can get PRK on the government dollar, by my understanding (I read it through several times). I'm getting a pretty strong sense they're trying to save themselves a lot of pain and anguish from losing a huge chunk of great prospective candidates/ROTCees that are wisely turning away in the face of a no-guarantee-they'll-get-a-pilot-slot-because they-can't-afford-the-procedure (let's not start the "right reasons" discussion again though). The Naval service can now breathe easier after the last few years of turning away thousands of [would've-been-air but had to contract supply or NFO or SWO or Log or just plain turned it down because they were just-shy of the minimums but couldn't be guaranteed]. Now they can contract a bunch from the get-go and worry about either switching them or giving them the procedure later once they've proved themselves capable studs.
As to those that mentioned the apparent strange thinking of suddenly and exponentially increasing the applicant base, I think that's actually a very sharp idea. They'll now get to pick and choose from an even more impressive group of wannabes that really have the "right stuff," and will lose less money in the long run due to the projected decrease in the number of drops (let's hope). Read: $3k spent giving a smart guy surgery, or $1.2 mil lost because a not-as-smart guy failed his check ride for the third time and had to go SWO? Let's also not forget there will theoretically be less worry about quality spread. There are a lot of capable aviators, leaders, or just plain smart guys that until now couldn't compete.
For those of you that do have either good vision or PRK, I don't mean any of this as an offense first of all, but secondly, it's definitely bad news for the wannabes, and "if you ain't contracted yet, you better quick, cuz the tough competition just got tougher."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's an SNA waiver, not an NA waiver. In other words, fully-winged Naval Aviators ain't gonna be running around with contacts, "evading capture if shot down" and all that.
To put even more plainly, contacts are going get you an up-chit to get you at least into the air pipeline, so that maybe while waiting in the pool right after a stage like AI or Primary you can get PRK on the government dollar, by my understanding (I read it through several times). I'm getting a pretty strong sense they're trying to save themselves a lot of pain and anguish from losing a huge chunk of great prospective candidates/ROTCees that are wisely turning away in the face of a no-guarantee-they'll-get-a-pilot-slot-because they-can't-afford-the-procedure (let's not start the "right reasons" discussion again though). The Naval service can now breathe easier after the last few years of turning away thousands of [would've-been-air but had to contract supply or NFO or SWO or Log or just plain turned it down because they were just-shy of the minimums but couldn't be guaranteed]. Now they can contract a bunch from the get-go and worry about either switching them or giving them the procedure later once they've proved themselves capable studs.
As to those that mentioned the apparent strange thinking of suddenly and exponentially increasing the applicant base, I think that's actually a very sharp idea. They'll now get to pick and choose from an even more impressive group of wannabes that really have the "right stuff," and will lose less money in the long run due to the projected decrease in the number of drops (let's hope). Read: $3k spent giving a smart guy surgery, or $1.2 mil lost because a not-as-smart guy failed his check ride for the third time and had to go SWO? Let's also not forget there will theoretically be less worry about quality spread. There are a lot of capable aviators, leaders, or just plain smart guys that until now couldn't compete.
For those of you that do have either good vision or PRK, I don't mean any of this as an offense first of all, but secondly, it's definitely bad news for the wannabes, and "if you ain't contracted yet, you better quick, cuz the tough competition just got tougher."
I'm pretty sure this is where the original link was supposed to go.
http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/Nami/WaiverGuideTopics/ophthalmology.htm
http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/Nami/WaiverGuideTopics/ophthalmology.htm
Mayday said:
Young man you may want to reconsider what you wrote here. This is a path you don't want to go down. Do you really mean to say that all the guys that go NFO, SWO or Arty do so only because they don't have the vision for pilot. That all of us defectives really have had to settle for NFO or SWO. I don't know how to break it to you guys, but there are thousands of guys with quality applications that would be selected for pilot under the old vision standards and have been turned down for lack of jobs. In the mid 80's we were building a Navy to fight WW III. We recruited more than three times the number of pilots back then and the standard was 20/20, not 20/40, no PRK. Perfect vision required. And guess what? We filled every slot and with quality to boot. You really think that we are having to take lesser quality applicants for pilot because of the vision standards?? You actually think that attrition will go down because the quality pool will be enlarged? What will be the cost to the other programs if you are right? The Navy was not breathing hard with regard to making pilot selection goals so how can they breathe easier now? For that matter, there isn't a Navy officer career field/designator available to OCS applicants that is difficult to recruit to or is remotely in trouble of not making it's selection qoal. These changes are more then likely because of changes in contact lense technology and the many years of experience with medical class II aviators. (for many years, after you got your wings you could keep flying if your vision deteriorated to the point that glasses were needed). And for the rest of you with questions about the application of the new rule, call a recruiter! Get up from the computer and go to the source and get the real gouge.
utlonghorn1981
Registered User
Does this apply also to Marine Corps aviator hopefuls??
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