Medical: Eye Examination

by Aaron Lenoir

Last week I went to the "ophthalmologist" (eye doctor) for a check-up of my eyes and vision. This is part of the "Medical Class 4" certification.

There are different classes of "Medical" certifications. Class 1 is for professional pilots, class 2 for PPL (Private Pilot Licensees) but class 4 is enough for Belgian ULM Licenses.

In practice, the doctor told me, class 4 and class 2 actually require the same checks.

For the vision checkup, they check several things:

  • Visual Field
  • Vision with correction (glasses / lenses)
  • Colour blindness
  • Check your eye nerves, position of the eyes etc ...

Glasses and flying

If glasses or lenses correct your vision I believe you are still able to pass Medical Class 1, so it's certainly OK for Class 2 and 4.

In my case, my glasses corrected my vision from 6/10 to 10/10. So this wasn't an issue.

Colour Blindness and flying

Only one interesting thing was noted for me: I do have a slight colour blindness for green/red. "Daltonism". This was noticed when conducting the "Ishihara" test. Where you have to see numbers in various coloured dots.

I already knew this, but interestingly, I have both failed and passed this test at two different times. So I failed 2/3 now.

I've only rarely experienced this in my daily life, so it's really subtle.

This doesn't really have consequences for me, but it could be a problem if I would ever want to get a "night rating" to fly at night. But I'm not allowed to fly at night with a ULM License anyway, so it's fine for me.

I may still be allowed to get a night rating if more detailed testing of my colour blindness would indicate I can see all that is necessary.

Medical Class 4

Apart from the "ophtalmological" examination there is also a general medical examination, which I'll be attending next month.

This eye examination set me back € 71. See my Running Costs ... for a list of all the money I spend on this hobby.