Can color blind people still fly?
By Patch • Category: MedicalAs I’ve mentioned, from the time I was very young, I’ve had a dream to fly. I’ve watched planes and helicopters, and even birds and been fascinated by flight. I love flying. I had called the local flight schools so often, I was probably becoming a pest.
As I got older, I considered a career in aviation and wanted nothing more than to be a Navy pilot flying an F-14 over the skies of my hometown, San Diego. I remember taking one of those career profile tests in middle school and writing down my career choice as Airline Pilot. The test suggested social worker. I thought it was a stupid test.
At some point in my life, my mom told me she thought I was color blind. I didn’t like the thought of that, but I didn’t really care. I could color and get myself dressed and most of the time the colors weren’t an issue. Sometimes my clothes didn’t match, but I marked it up as my bad sense of “taste”.
The color blindness didn’t matter until I started talking about being a pilot. That’s when someone told me I couldn’t be a Navy pilot if I had any amount of color blindness. I was very upset and started to argue with anyone who told me I might be color blind. It wasn’t until I joined the Navy and took the actual test that it was confirmed. I was color blind.
Suddenly the jobs I could do in the Navy had been severely limited. In the aviation field, I could become a parachute rigger, storeman (ordering parts for the planes), or administrationsman. No avionics, no power plants, and certainly NO PILOT!
Reality set in and I decided I would be an “Aviation Maintenance Administrationsman” A huge name better known as an “AZ”. At least I would be close to the planes and able to see them everyday. I even saw some “non-color blind” pilots walking the halls every day. It was as close as I was going to get. Someone said I could have joined the Army and been a helicopter pilot, but I heard they have a life expectancy of less than 1 minute in a combat situation. I decided I wanted to be a pilot for a little longer than THAT.
There are approximately 8-12% of the white male population who are color blind and less than 1/2 of 1% of the white females. For a guy who wanted nothing more than to be a pilot, this was definately a bad hand to be dealt. At one point I even figured I would just memorize the little cards with all the dots on them and try to sneak past the “color guards”. Turns out, that just can’t be done.
Do you see the 6, 8 and 45 above? I don’t! Seriously, it’s hard for a non-color blind person to imagine not being able to see something that is so crystal clear to them, but it’s true. I just a bunch of dots of various colors.
So, I’m color blind and I’ll never be a Navy pilot. But, that didn’t mean I couldn’t be a civilian pilot. I started to look into this option and I was thrilled to find out my color blind state wasn’t going to stop me in this area. According to the FAA, to become a private pilot you don’t have to prove your color vision… as long as you don’t want to fly above the clouds or in other IFR (Instrument Flight Regulations) situations.
That was it! I was going to get my private pilots license. That was when I was 18 years old. Today I’m 39 and I still haven’t done it. More about that in the days to come.
If you’re wondering about your color blindness I’ve included a few simple tests and a couple of links to more information.
About Color Blindness - Spend some time exploring this site. It has a lot of great information
Color Blind Kids - This is a great site if you’re dealing with color blind children. There’s a lot of information on how color blind kids struggle in school and how it often goes unnoticed and consequently untreated.
Corrective glasses - ColorView glasses state they don’t “cure” color blindness, but they do say they will help you if you have a red/green color blindness issue. I don’t know anyone who has tried these, so I have no idea if they work.
Corrective Sunglasses - These are supposed to do the same thing as the ColorView glasses, but in sunglass form. They have some “laser dye” treatment. I know nothing about them other than the fact that they cost about $300 each.
Patch is the owner of this site. I originally took my flight instruction with Spokane Airways located at Spokane International Airport (GEG). I passed my checkride in August of 2007. I now live in Florida and fly out of Lantana (KLNA) or North County Airport (F45).
Email this author | All posts by Patch
I am colourblind and wanna be a pilot, is there anyway i can be a commercial pilot???
Pleeeeease reply
Thanks so much
Marshall
Hi Marshall,
In the United States, to become a commercial airline pilot, you’ll need an ATP certificate. This is an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate. It requires a 1st Class Medical which is the most restrictive. The 1st class requires renewal every 6 months.
There are a number of color blindness tests that can be administered to you. It doesn’t matter which one you pass. Truth is, most color blind people will be able to pass one of the many tests. You just have to find out which one you pass. The FAA doesn’t say you have to pass a specific one.
I’d recommend you spend some time trying each one type of test and find the one that works for you. Is this cheating? No! Truth is, it’s VERY difficult to test for all the varieties of color blindness. Honestly, every person in the world has some level of general color blindness. So tests like the Ishihara, are designed to pass the majority of people, but it doesn’t work for everyone. The most accurate test is the farnsworth munsell 100 hue test. It will give you the most feedback.
If you were to take one of those books with all the dots and spend some time studying it, you’d probably be able to figure most of them out. I’m not talking about memorizing, just spending some time studying. It might be worth buying one to do this. Every doctor uses the same one. DON’T CHEAT on your medical.
Here’s what the FAA requires:
FAR 67.103 (c) - Ability to perceive those colors necessary for the safe performance of airman duties.
Hope this helps.