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Picked up as pilot, now worried about my eyes!

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!!
 

exo

Member
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?
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
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.
 

nugget61

Active Member
pilot
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.
 

submarinerssbn

New Member
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
????
 

nugget61

Active Member
pilot
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.

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.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
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.

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.
 

Kickflip89

Below Ladder
None
Contributor
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.

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.
 

Longhorn

New Member
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.


and what happened in your situation in terms of the astigmatism?
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Wow, do deer follow you around licking you because of all the salt? ;)


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... ;)
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
I was NPQd for pilot at OCS and transferred to FO. My case is pretty rare, though, as far as I know.

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.
 

Kickflip89

Below Ladder
None
Contributor
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.

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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