Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: notesfiles - hp internal release 1.2; site hp-pcd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hp-pcd!nathanm From: nathanm@hp-pcd.UUCP Newsgroups: net.aviation Subject: Re: Class II medical waivers??? Message-ID: <5500025@hp-pcd.UUCP> Date: Sun, 18-Mar-84 21:00:00 EST Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.5500025 Posted: Sun Mar 18 21:00:00 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 16-Mar-84 02:49:53 EST References: <213@iwu1c.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett-Packard Portable Computer Division - Corvallis, OR Lines: 38 Nf-ID: #R:iwu1c:-21300:hpcvrb:5500025:000:1631 Nf-From: hpcvrb!nathanm Mar 12 18:00:00 1984 [] Despite the total lack of evidence that wearing visual aids has *ever* caused an accident, the rules live on. I recall reading somewhere that the FAA will be investigating the subject, so things may change in our lifetimes. Or perhaps those of the next generation. Like you, I suffer from 20/400- myopia. At my first aviation physical, for reasons I never understood, the doctor made me remove my contact lenses and look at the chart. "Can you see the E on the top line? It's OK to squint." So I squinted until I scrunched my face into a tiny little ball. "Yes," I concluded, "it's an E." Of course, this was a third class physical. The one treatment I know of that is often used by airline pilots is orthokeratology. In this treatment, your lenses are slowly reshaped with a series of contact lenses (through selective oxygen starvation, I once heard) until you attain 20/20-hood. After treatment, you need to wear retainer lenses for a few hours a week... otherwise your good vision will slowly slip away. Since this slipping away takes months instead of seconds (unlike dropping glasses or popping contact lenses), the FAA considers it acceptable. If you're really impatient, you might consider radial keratotomy, the surgical counterpart to orthokeratology. It's still pretty new in this country and I don't think the long-term effects are understood. But you could be the first on your block. While I'm at it, maybe I'll suggest an answer to the question I started out to address: I wouldn't bet a dime on your chances of getting a waiver. Sorry. ---- Nathan Meyers {hplabs,allegra!harpo}!hp-pcd!nathanm