Army NG Helo Pilot Vision Requirement

4wheelin4evr · July 13, 2012

Hey all,

New guy here with a vision requirement question. I have a concern with pursuing an aviation slot in the ARNG......when doing my eye exam at MEPS for enlistment I was sent to an eye doctor for further evaluation. Now it's not severe from what the eye doc told me but I'm a bit worried. I was looking around at the requirements to be a pilot and I saw that my vision must correct to 20/20 in order to fly. I also saw that a waiver might be possible (True?).

Here's the issue. It was determined by the civilian eye doc they sent me to that my right eye is slightly farsighted. So it does not correct to 20/20. It corrects to 20/30. So I'm not too far off. My left eye is perfectly fine. The doc gave me a prescription to get glasses if I want and said that it will mostly be to help slow farsightedness from getting worse when I get older. But he also said they are not a requirement and that I probably won't need them till I'm in my late 30s or early 40s. If that. I'm worried that my flight dream might be halted before I can even start. I still need to do the flight physical which I will do later on after I get back from BCT and AIT but is this something I should be worried about? I thought about filling the prescription and wearing the glasses part time as the doc recommended to maybe help with the issue. What do you guys think?

PS - I am planning on going WO sometime after returning from BCT and AIT.

Thanks all!

CharyouTree · July 14, 2012

Do you meant to say that you're 20/20 in one eye, and 20/30 in the other....right now? When you put glasses on, does that make you 20/20 in both eyes? If so, vision is no issue for you. You'd (officially, anyway) probably need to wear glasses while flying, and any other time you deemed necessary.

Uncorrected means just that...no glasses or contacts. Corrected means with the glasses on. Getting laser surgery (which I wouldn't recommend in your case) puts your new baseline "uncorrected" at whatever you see at AFTER the surgery. For example, I was 20/400 uncorrected, 20/20 corrected. I had surgery, now I'm 20/20 uncorrected.

Yamer · July 14, 2012

Dont want to change your topic of question but why are you choosing the gaurd route instead of street to seat active duty?

4wheelin4evr · July 14, 2012

Do you meant to say that you're 20/20 in one eye, and 20/30 in the other....right now? When you put glasses on, does that make you 20/20 in both eyes? If so, vision is no issue for you. You'd (officially, anyway) probably need to wear glasses while flying, and any other time you deemed necessary.

Uncorrected means just that...no glasses or contacts. Corrected means with the glasses on. Getting laser surgery (which I wouldn't recommend in your case) puts your new baseline "uncorrected" at whatever you see at AFTER the surgery. For example, I was 20/400 uncorrected, 20/20 corrected. I had surgery, now I'm 20/20 uncorrected.

Ya that's what I meant. My right eye is 20/30. Sorry for the confusion. Just using the terminology that MEPS was and I really don't fully understand it. Haha. I don't where glasses but the civilian eye doc said I could get it corrected to 20/20 if I wore them. If I had to wear glasses while flying that would be fine with me. I have never had corrected vision in my life and never had issues with my vision. I learned at MEPS that my right eye is 20/30. First time I have ever had an actual eye exam.

I would really rather not go for the surgery anyway so that option is pretty much out of the question unless that was the only way I would be able to fly. But based of what I've heard, that's not the case.

Dont want to change your topic of question but why are you choosing the gaurd route instead of street to seat active duty?

The reason I chose Guard vs AD is cause of my home station. I have a 4 year old and her mother and I are separated. So going AD would result in me losing a lot of custody if I had to move. Which I most like would cause as far as I know, there is very few AD Army stations here in Utah. And none of them are aviation units. The Guard has AH-64D and UH-60 units here. I am actually going to AIT for a 15Y MOS. So I will be working on the Apache.

Yamer · July 15, 2012

My good friend is a cw2 in aviation maintenance here in az guard. He has seen a TON of people join with intentions to go fly and never do so if you go gaurd just dont forget what you want to do and dont give it up. That was his advice to me thats why im going ad. Just thought it would help you too. I feel your pain about the family thing. Im married with two kids and it took some talking but we decided to go ad cause its what i want to do is fly and dont need to get sidetracked doing some different mos until then.

4wheelin4evr · July 15, 2012

Thanks for the advice. I feel pretty grounded as far as what direction I want to head. It's just a matter of getting there. It would be a totally different situation if I was still with my daughters mom. AD would be more of a possibility. But since we are divorced, there really is no way for me to go AD if I want to see my child more often.

SBuzzkill · July 15, 2012

You realize you're going to have to move to Alabama for flight school right? Granted it's two years or less, but it's still a move.

As far as your eyesight goes, I'm pretty sure your near vision has to be 20/20 uncorrected.

If you can see things in 20/20 close up and your distance vision is 20/30 correctable to 20/20, then you're OK.

4wheelin4evr · July 16, 2012

Ya I realize it would involve moving for that time. With that, it's at least less than 2 years. Where as AD would be a lot longer potentially. I want to go to flight school. The training is somewhere that I am still fully unsure about but I have time. I want to go through it and fly but leaving the kid at home for so long is hard to imagine doing.

Thanks for the input on the vision part. Very useful info. I'll keep these things in mind. Sounds like I may not have too much to worry about with my eyesight.