military aviation and color vision

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arkavgal

Well-Known Member
Hey guys. I have a slight color deficiency problem and therefore I have never been able to pass the standard Ishara plates or the FALANT. I finally found an FAA alternate test I can pass: the keystone. That is fine for civilian aviation. I am interested in flying for the AF Reserve/ANG, however, and am wondering if they would accept the Keystone. Is there any kind of waiver for this? Thanks a bunch,

Ryan
 
Once upon a time in the past, (like when I went into the AF) alternate color vision tests were allowed. Unfortunately, current AF/ANG/AFRES physical standards do not allow any alternate tests, nor any waivers, on color vision. Sorry.
 
MDPilot said:
Once upon a time in the past, (like when I went into the AF) alternate color vision tests were allowed. Unfortunately, current AF/ANG/AFRES physical standards do not allow any alternate tests, nor any waivers, on color vision. Sorry.
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That bites. What about the navy/marines/coast guard?
 
srleslie said:
That bites. What about the navy/marines/coast guard?
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I dont think so. Military vision requirements are very,very stupid. You can fly a jet with hundreds of people on it but you cant fly a fighter jet or even a military transport jet. My vision is correctable down to 20/20 but my refractive error is so bad that I can only fly civilian.
 
Maybe they will change that in a few years. Probably wishful thinking. That would probably take a great shortage of pilots, which I would imagine they don't have any trouble getting people to sign up for flight school.
 
No chance to fly w/ even slight color blindness unless you memorize color charts, and those are guarded like classified. In the Coast Guard, you can't commission (including non flying positions) if you have color blindness
 
I had a friend who ended up in contracting from space operations in the Air Force because he was red-green colorblind.

The rationale was that he couldn't distinguish between various tracks (friends in green or hostiles in red, or something similar), and therefore, couldn't qualify for that position. (When I worked on air defense systems, though, tracks had unique symbology in addition to color in case you had to use the system with night-vision goggles on.)

I don't know what other positions color blindness disqualifies you for, but I know that was one of them.
 
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