army helicopter pilot

[apb1213]

hey. i am currently applying for the warrent officer program to become a helicopter pilot in the army. i have taken the asvab as well as the afast. i think my scores were 129 and 142. i have 120 hours of college credit. i fit the height weight for a helicopter pilot and i got almost 23 hours of flight time logged in a r22. here is the problem, i have the physical coming up next week, and i know my vision is bad. i wear contacts now. the recruiter has had me take all the tests knowing this. what do i do. can i get a waiver for my eyes or maybe get laser surgury. i dont know what to do, i know i want to be a helicopter pilot bad. Help

 

 

thanks

[ChprPlt]

When I looked into the warrent officer program your eye sight uncorrected couldnt be worse then 20/50. Do you know what yours is?

[apb1213]

When I looked into the warrent officer program your eye sight uncorrected couldnt be worse then 20/50. Do you know what yours is?

 

 

hey, i think i am somewhere between 20/100 20/150. i have been wearing contacts for years and they are -5.75.

[jfcorey]

I have been through all of this TWICE. I will tell you regular Army recruiters do not like doing Flight Packets and they are not very knowledgeable about the process, you really need to do it yourself. My last attempt was in 2006 and at least at the time I was told there aren't waivers for vision but rather exceptions to policy and they are very difficult to get. The 20/50 requirement is misleading, as I saw 20/40 however its the "fine print" (no pun intended) that will get you, My cycloplegic refractive error, was more than allowed by .2 diopter. The thig that really ate me up wa once into flight school, I only had to maintain class 2 standards... Oh well Here is the "fine print" on vision standards for Army aviation

 

 

4–12. Vision

The causes of medical unfitness for flying duty Classes 1/2/2F/3/4 are the following:

a. Class 1. Any disqualifying condition must be referred to optometry or ophthalmology for verification.

(1) Distant visual acuity. Uncorrected distant visual acuity worse than 20/50 in each eye. If the distant visual acuity

is 20/50 or better in either eye, each eye must be correctable to 20/20 with no more than 1 error per 5 presentations of

AR 40–501 • 14 December 2007 41

20/20 letters, in any combination, on either the Armed Forces Vision Tester (AFVT) or any projected Snellen chart set

at 20 feet. (See ATB, Distant Visual Acuity Testing and APL, Decreased Visual Acuity.)

(2) Near visual acuity. Uncorrected near visual acuity worse than 20/20 in each eye; with no more than 1 error per 5

presentations of 20/20 letters, in any combination, on the AFVT or any Snellen near visual acuity card. (See ATB,

Near Visual Acuity Testing and APL, Decreased Visual Acuity.)

(3) Cycloplegic refractive error using the method in ATB, Cycloplegic Refraction.

(a) Hyperopia greater than +3.00 diopters of sphere in any meridian by transposition in either eye. (Spherical

equivalent method does not apply.)

( Myopia greater than –1.50 diopters of sphere in any meridian by transposition in either eye. (Spherical

equivalent method does not apply.)

© Astigmatism greater than +/–1.00 diopter of cylinder in either eye.

 

I would suggest you email the recruiters : http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/prerequ/WO153A.html

 

FWIW: http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOov....html#Lasik_PRK

[Darkhorse]

Last I knew it was 20/50 corrected to 20/20 but you couldnt fly with contacts, glasses only. DONT get any surgery until your accepted and through the program. The flight surgeons will tell you what surgeries you can have and which ones will end your flying career for the Army.

[apb1213]

I really appreciate all of the information, and I have one more question. Knowing 100% that I cannot pass the eye exam without contacts is there any reason for me to continue to try to pursue this or should I keep pushing on and hope to get into the class and get corrective surgery in the future.

[jfcorey]

I strongly urge you to get in touch with these gentlemen, then let us know what they say for the benefit of other potential applicants like yourself.

 

POC: CW4 Richard Ayers

 

E-Mail: Richard.Ayers@conus.army.mil

334-255-1419

DSN 558-1419

 

POC: Mr. John Kissel

 

Aviation Proponent Warrant Officer Analyst

Email: john.kissel@conus.army.mil

DSN: 558-1430

[CharyouTree]

Last I knew it was 20/50 corrected to 20/20 but you couldnt fly with contacts, glasses only. DONT get any surgery until your accepted and through the program. The flight surgeons will tell you what surgeries you can have and which ones will end your flying career for the Army.

 

The problem being that you can't get into the program until you have the eyesight to pass a class 1A/W flight physical.

 

Quite a few things have changed in recent years. When I started looking into getting my surgery (I had pretty bad vision, I had no choice), PRK was a waiverable surgery, and LASIK was an exception to policy. I chose to go with the PRK. I believe now LASIK is also waiverable.

 

PRK at the time was also a waiver granted by the flight surgeons down here at Rucker. You had to have this packet of info from your surgeon and send that down to get your waiver. Now it's a local waiver, approved by your flight surgeon, and said packet needs to be sent down here only in the event of the FS thinking the results are "marginal". (Note that all flight physicals are ultimately sent to Ft Rucker for final approval.)

 

I've honestly lost all of the web pages I had previously that specified all the info about which were waivers, and which were ETP, but they're out there. I think you'd be better off talking to someone in the aviation medicine community, particularly at http://www.usaarl.army.mil/ ; as opposed to a recruiter.

 

I don't know if the info is still on the USAARL site, because they ended the test program for PRK/LASIK a few years ago. But you should be able to at least call down and get in touch with someone, or a number for someone who knows more accurately.

[FLHooker]

jfcorey,

 

To my knowledge medical waivers start off as exceptions to policy, THEN turn into a waiver beginning with the first physical AFTER your initial entry physical. I had to do the same thing for something other than medical... and I did just what I just mentioned.

 

 

CHAD