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Old 07-27-2007 | 08:04 AM
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rickair7777
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
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If you are a career pilot type and can pass the medical for the type of flying you do (or want to do), I would be VERY wary of laser surgery just as a lifestyle convenience thing.

I know one airline pilot who had it (LASIK I think) whose cornea ended up so scarred that he couldn't get a medical. The docs told him he needed cornea transplants but the company health plan declined to pay for it (since his vision wasn't so bad that he couldn't work at jiffy-lube or starbucks). The guy ended up as a sim instructor until the company got tired of paying him CA pay (contract sim guys make $30-40K) and fired him.

There is a definite, if small, risk. Personally I would do it in order to qualify for say a military pilot slot, but not just to avoid wearing glasses. Actually I'll probably get it done after I retire from flying.
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