I'm with you on that. I just got my ppl and have night restrictions on my medical certificate. I want to get the rest of my ratings, but I'm not going to drop the coin until I know I can get by this. I need to take the MFT but the whole one shot and you effed scares me.

On the same boat... I got it RIGHT BEFORE the rules changed, and they still screwed me over by sending me an erroneous letter to hold me up in the system b/c they knew it was changing. So I never got my LOE. It is frustrating as hell.

This is exactly what I am talking about that is wrong with the system and I feel we should be able to do something about this if we all came together. A little pressure may keep some things in check.

In my case, when I talked to OKC the Dr. told me if I would have called last year they would have upgraded my restriction to the first class and just attributed the upgrade to "operational experience". I am thinking to myself sooo what has changed.

Motoboy, as I am sure you have heard from others be careful if you are considering taking the MFT. We all wouldn't want you to burn your one chance and then have something actually change down the road. Keep in mind there are A LOT of jobs in the aviation industry. I started out thinking all I wanted to do was fly fly fly and as I progressed through flight training and college, I did an internship and realized how much it actually takes to run an airline. That sparked me to change my degree to management rather than a "flying degree". I really enjoy flight instructing and taking that to the airline level, even if it is ground instructing, is something I am seriously considering regardless of my medical situation. Don't be discouraged man keep at it if this is something you love.

I appreciate the advice. So right now do you take one of the alternative test, and retake it at each physical, and I'm guessing you have a 3rd class?

I think you have a great idea on organizing color defficient pilots. Over at Jetcareers there is also a ton of pilots in the same situation, maybe we should talk to aopa about this, they have a great medical team.

Actually, my case is a little different. I took a light gun signal test back in 2003 on a 2nd class medical. I failed during the day and retook it at night, passed. This left the restriction "not valid to fly by color control signal during daylight hours" on my 2nd class. When I got my medical renewed a few years back I actually passed the same ishihara test i had failed a few year before and was issued an unrestricted 1st class.

Now I have to renew my medical soon and I decided to see if I can use that same SODA on my 1st class and the feds told me no. I figured having that stupid light gun signal restriction is better than not being able to fly at night. So now my only option is to take the MFT or hopefully pass the ishihara test again. I have taken a few of the alternate tests at an eye doctor and they have not gone well. I got 7 wrong on the Dvorine where we can only get 6. I am right on the edge so that is how I probably passed last time I took my medical, maybe a lucky guess or something.

I will check out jetcareers and I will call AOPA this week. I think others should do the same.

What a joke. This entire medical situation needs a massive overhaul. It's almost like the FAA loves to have that power to send you an envelope for you to put your cards in.

My parents passed away when I was 13, I started flying at 19 and filled out my first medical application to the best of my knowledge.

Now, many years later I still think what if my MD had made some notation or I was on some medication when I was young. The feds would eat me for breakfast, I'm sure everything is fine but you never know what some doc jotted in your file when you were a kid.

I understand their ultra conservative approach on medication but, I feel it causes many pilots to fly 'sick' or just lie on their app. I just think we need to take a good look at 100% of the entire process. People don't want to pay for flight training to have their investment yanked out from under them. Hell, I'm a healthy guy who plays by the rules and I'm still concerned that my career is in the hands of some faceless DOC back in OKC.

I feel for you guys going through all this junk. In the meantime your right to fly is hanging in the balance while the FAA plays games.

Well said sir.

Maybe we should come up with a formal letter and send it to the AOPA who can then review it, etc and forward it onto the FAA... We can get all people with this issue to sign the letter and put their AOPA membership number next to it... We can add points about the entire basis of them changing the rules... (nonsense NTSB report about that UPS 727 accident that had nothing to do with color vision in the first place.)

Great idea!

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Thank you spreedbreak.

I'm the developer od cvdpilots
The aim is to create a cvd database, centralize info, spread news between each other all over the world and get united in this cause.
We can and we should do something. In australian CASA they already removed color restrictiong by going to court.

the only way we can do this is get organized, register, show how many of us are there and communicate between each other.
No private info will be used without your will except for statistics.

that said, I invite you to visit the growing site.
I'm currently developing new options which will be available soon.

don't stant still!