The Dream is Over

applepwnz

applepwnz

New Member
Well guys, I took my Farnsworth lantern test today, and failed miserably, so no being a pilot for me.
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At least I had a good backup plan, so I'm just going to go to college for either Aeronautical or Mechanical Engineering now (new goal, become an imagineer for Disney.) I'm just trying to look at the bright parts, no having to live on a CFI salary, no being away from home all of the time, but alas, no flying either.
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What is the Farnsworth Lantern test? I have my PPL and I've never taken that test...???

-Matthew

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It's a color blindness test.
 
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Well guys, I took my Farnsworth lantern test today, and failed miserably, so no being a pilot for me.
frown.gif
At least I had a good backup plan, so I'm just going to go to college for either Aeronautical or Mechanical Engineering now (new goal, become an imagineer for Disney.) I'm just trying to look at the bright parts, no having to live on a CFI salary, no being away from home all of the time, but alas, no flying either.
frown.gif


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I feel for you, but things aren't all that bad. I too started off wanting to be a pilot and ended up an engineer. It has it's own rewards, and you could always try to go as a flight test engineer; I don't think the Farnsworth test would preclude that.

On the bright side, maybe you can make some big bucks and be able to afford a business jet, and you can come here to hire some guys to fly you all over. That's my new dream; to make enough to buy a business jet and be able to fly all around the world wherever I feel like!

Hang in there. Engineering is a good fallback, and you'll see that it can be exciting in a different way.
 
There's a guy on here that had one of the best quotes I've ever heard


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The goal is to be the guy in the BACK of the jet, not the front of it

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or something like that. Being an engineer you can be financially independant a lot quicker than becoming a pilot. I've put too much $$ and effort to stop short of making it to a 121 carrier now, but I'm sure that dream will change quickly once I get there!

~wheelsup
 
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Quote:
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What is the Farnsworth Lantern test? I have my PPL and I've never taken that test...???

-Matthew


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It's a color blindness test.

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Well you can always be a police officer their color blind as well....they only see black!

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-Matthew
 
Maybe not necessarily over. I failed the Farnsworth test when I tried to see if I could fly in the military way back when but passed the light gun test administered by the local FAA FSDO, which gave me a waiver for the color blindness portion of any class of FAA medical. You should look into that option before giving up. You may want to check out this website: leftseat.com/baggish.htm. It has some helpful info.
 
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Maybe not necessarily over. I failed the Farnsworth test when I tried to see if I could fly in the military way back when but passed the light gun test administered by the local FAA FSDO, which gave me a waiver for the color blindness portion of any class of FAA medical. You should look into that option before giving up. You may want to check out this website: leftseat.com/baggish.htm. It has some helpful info.

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yeahthat.gif


I know several people who failed the color-blindness test and received a waiver. From what I understand, getting the waiver is fairly easy. Don't be so quick to give up, there will be some bumps in the road (and definately some bigger than this one).
 
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Well you can always be a police officer their color blind as well....they only see black!

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Haven't had a DWB in a while . . . just a matter of time, I suppose!
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Thanks for the kind words everyone, you're right, I'd might as well try the light gun test now, I mean, hey if I fail it I wouldn't really be any worse off, and if I passed it I'd be good to go. Is the light gun test really that different from the farnsworth lantern though? I was under the impression that they were basically the same thing.
 
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Is the light gun test really that different from the farnsworth lantern though?

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If you can tell the difference between red and green on a streetlight, you can pass the light gun test. In fact, you can request a light gun signal demonstration from a control tower (they seem to really like to do it for us around here), and you'll know if you can pass or not.

Good Luck
 
For me, the light gun was a lot easier than the Farnsworth test. The differences are much more obvious. Go give it a shot, but practice first with the tower so you know what to expect. Good luck!
 
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Well you can always be a police officer their color blind as well....they only see black!

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Haven't had a DWB in a while . . . just a matter of time, I suppose!
smirk.gif


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Thats because everyone is gunning for an arab these days...were getting a free pass!

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-Matthew
 
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Maybe not necessarily over. I failed the Farnsworth test when I tried to see if I could fly in the military way back when but passed the light gun test administered by the local FAA FSDO, which gave me a waiver for the color blindness portion of any class of FAA medical. You should look into that option before giving up. You may want to check out this website: leftseat.com/baggish.htm. It has some helpful info.

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yeahthat.gif


I know several people who failed the color-blindness test and received a waiver. From what I understand, getting the waiver is fairly easy. Don't be so quick to give up, there will be some bumps in the road (and definately some bigger than this one).

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A friend of mine had the same problem.....no joy on the color blindness test. He didn't let that stand in his way.....got a waiver that shows he can see the light gun signals.

NOW HE'S AN F/O FOR A MAJOR AIRLINE FLYING 737'S.

Don't give up the fight yet!!!
 
The Light Gun is worth a shot. What's better is to do some alternate approved color vision tests - there's about 8 available (the Farnsworth is one of them, but there are other types). If you pass any of them, you can send in the test results and get a "Letter of Competence" from the FAA that will alllow an unrestricted medical. It might cost some time and money to go thru the process but if you REALLY want a career as a pilot and you don't want to do the Light Gun thing, it's worth a shot.

Check out http://www.aviationmedicine.com/colorvision.htm

I recently went thru this entire process, after working with the docs at aviationmedicine.com and Dr. Monaco (whom they recommended, and they are GREAT to work with) who is a top notch aviation vision expert that did my vision testing.

As always, anybody can PM me for details of the process that I went thru.

Don't give up until all your options are exhausted and until you do all your research.
 
Yeah dude, don't be discouraged. I took a modified Farnsworth Lantern test a month ago. That test chewed me up and spit me out....I got like 12 of the 27 pairs right...I couldn't understand how anyone could do it (I passed another test but this isn't for flying, a totally different story).

I know I can tell the difference between the light guns...I've asked the control tower for light gun signals before and had no problem seeing them. I can also easily tell the difference between the white/green airport beacon at night.

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Check out http://www.aviationmedicine.com/colorvision.htm

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Those guys know their stuff. They helped me deal with my situation recently, it was WELL worth the 40 bucks. I was happy to finally get answers instead of guessing what I need to do...I'm gonna PM you (applepwnz) part of the email they sent me about getting a waiver/SODA.

Don't give up yet my colorblind brother
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!
 
Seriously, don't give up. I flew with a captain a couple months ago who is colorblind. I found this out after making a crack on how I'd hate to be colorblind and fly the ERJ, since so much is based on color. Foot. Meet. Mouth. He was cool about it though, and I learned you can be colorblind and get a SODA. If you can be a captain on the ERJ and colorblind, I'm sure you can get your private/commercial/CFI.
 
Just FYI....

Being colorblind won't fail you on the medical. You can still hold a first class medical but you will have a restriction reading something like "Not Valid for Night Flying or by Colored Signal".

I wouldn't think that can stop you from obtaining your PPL as no night PIC time is required. You just wouldn't be able to fly at night. I really don't understand the 'colored signal' restriction though. I guess if you have an electrical or radio failure (which i had two days ago actually), you would have to go to an uncontrolled airport maybe.
 
It's good to see that no matter what a person's problem is that might end their dreams forever, you guys always come up with a way.
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It's good to see that no matter what a person's problem is that might end their dreams forever, you guys always come up with a way.
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Hell yeah! thanks everyone. I actually think it'll probably be better this way, after I get my engineering degree, I should be able to get a halfway decent job right out of college, and then I could start working on my ratings. The other thing that makes it kindof a blessing in a way is that if you remember a few months ago I had a thread about a suicide attempt, now given the circumstances (I told the AME everything accurately) he told me to just not report it on my medical, but the recent crackdown in CA was making me kind of nervous, so I figure that if I get back into flying someday, I'll probably do things the right way and go for getting an ok from the FAA for that (I'm the kind of guy with a huge consience, and I just couldn't stand the guilt.) I mean, by then I think I'd at least be almost assured of a 3rd class if nothing else (hopefully I'd still be able to get a first class too.)
 
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