nightrider

I got a soda for color vision deficiencies and I now fly an a300
for a major airline it won't stop him in civilian airlines.

Good luck

Planespotta

Haha The message you have entered is too short

Nightsky

I also have a SODA for color deficiency. I actually had no clue I had any color vision problems whatsoever prior to taking my first aeromedical exam. I never had a clue and everyone close to me, ie family, said they were surprised also as they never noticed problems with my color identification. Apparently however, certain shades jumbled up together give me problems. I hate those color dot tests now. It really crushed me when I found out. Thank god I had good doc. He told me he'd get a hold of the local FSDO and see if they could do an alternate test (light gun signals). This was in the mid '90's fyi. Anyway, it took about 6 months, but they finally got back to me and I passed no problem. The examiner even started asking me colors of every damn thing in sight - and I got them all right. He said he was surprised I even had color vision problems.

Anyway, having this color vision soda has not been a problem at the regional level - but I must admit I'm concerned for when it comes time to hit up the majors. I also have heard of CAL outright dequaling other color vision soda guys. In hindsight, I wish I would have not gotten the SODA and instead would have gotten one of the letters another poster talked about. I'm upfront with my SODA - in each interview process I made sure they knew about it. I didn't want it to seem like I was hiding anything.

So nightrider - I'm curious, did you tell your current employer? I ask this because I hear so many conflicting opinions. I've personally come across at least a dozen other pilots with SODA's and 50/50 said they only presented the unrestricted medical vs those like me who presented the medical and soda. It seems like most majors do their own medical test anyway and will find out no matter what, and I wondered if a SODA is acceptable to their examiner.

motoboy

Is it a big deal to ask the tower for a light gun demo before contacting the FAA just to be sure?

rickair7777

Nope. try to do it when they are not busy. You could do it from anywhere you can see the tower using an airplane radio or a handheld. You could also call them on your cell phone, and just tell them where you are so they can aim the gun.

Pilotpip

Nope. Used to do it with students on night flights all the time. Our tower appreciated it and asked the school to do it more often (apparently I was the only instructor doing this). Give the tower a call, explain your purpose and they should be happy to help. Just make sure you don't try and do it during a busy period at your local airport.

motoboy

Thanks guys.

srleslie

How do I do this, get this letter of competence, without passing one of the alternate color vision tests? Are you saying you can do this without taking one of the tests?

Nightsky

Hey rick, just curious what airlines you know of that don't accept a waiver. I checked a few majors websites and found no mention of them.

⌐ AV8OR WANNABE

Folks, do not confuse color blindness with color deficiency. Pure color blindness is very rare and there are no waivers for it. In your case you are not color blind, you are color deficient and in particular you are red - green deficient.

My cousin is color blind and he only sees, you guessed it BLACK and WHITE colors and the shades in between.