Can you wear glasses and be a pilot

This requires approximately 50 hours of flight training, experience and successfully passing written and practical examinations. A commercial pilot license allows a pilot to charge for his or her services. There are specific training requirements and a minimum experience of hours.

Again there are written and practical examinations. The airline transport pilot certificate is the high license granted by the FAA. It requires 1, hours of flight experience plus a very comprehensive written and practical examination.

This license has been said to be the PhD of piloting. Facebook Twitter Email. Ask the Captain: Can pilots wear glasses? Glasses or toric contact lenses correct this condition. The FAA will permit pilots and controllers who have undergone refractive surgery to fly and control, if they have had a successful outcome. If they meet the uncorrected visual acuity standards for the class of medical certificate applied for, the Airman Medical Certificate will not have any vision limitations.

If the visual surgery does not result in meeting the FAA standards uncorrected, but does with corrective lenses, the certificate will bear the standard vision limitations e. If the outcome of the surgery does not allow vision correction to FAA standards or results in fluctuating vision, the airman or controller may be denied medical certification.

Controllers must obtain specific clearance from the Regional Flight Surgeon before returning to duty. Pilots and controllers wearing glasses or contact lenses must meet all of the FAA vision standards. Those requiring near and distant correction may do this with either bifocals worn all the time or wearing contact lenses that correct for distant and having reading glasses available for near vision. Some contact lens manufacturers and eye specialists are touting the advantages of Mono Vision Contact Lenses MVCL to eliminate the need for glasses without surgery.

The MVCL technique uses one contact lens to focus at near while the lens in the other eye focuses at distant. The pilot suppresses the blurred image from the eye not in use depending on the distance of the viewed object.

Because both eyes are not simultaneously focusing on an object at distant, the binocular component of depth perception may be reduced. Many other monocular cues to depth perception, such as shadows, relative size, motion parallax, contrast and texture gradient still exist when using MVCL. These monocular cues are susceptible to illusions in a visually compromised environment, such as reduced lighting or weather.

The FAA will only allow monovision correction if induced surgically see our article on refractive surgery though it does require at least a six months adjustment period before returning to flying. Currently controllers are not authorized any method of monovision correction. The FAA has approved the use of the newer multifocal contact lenses that correct at distant in the central portion while correcting for near vision at the periphery.

In short, this means that there is no requirement to have good vision without correction. You can read more about the medical requirements that you need to undergo when becoming a professional pilot in this article: Medical Requirements - What gives?

If a satisfactory visual function is achieved only with the use of correction: 1 i for distant vision, spectacles or contact lenses shall be worn whilst exercising the privileges of the applicable licence s ; ii for near vision, a pair of spectacles for near use shall be kept available during the exercise of the privileges of the licence; 2 a spare set of similarly correcting spectacles shall be readily available for immediate use whilst exercising the privileges of the applicable licence s ; 3 the correction shall provide optimal visual function, be well-tolerated and suitable for aviation purposes; 4 if contact lenses are worn, they shall be for distant vision, monofocal, non-tinted and well tolerated; 5 applicants with a large refractive error shall use contact lenses or high-index spectacle lenses; 6 no more than one pair of spectacles shall be used to meet the visual requirements; 7 orthokeratological lenses shall not be used.

So, what is the conclusion?