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stuckindayton

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stuckindayton last won the day on September 21 2017

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  1. Google “Air Force MSD” and look at Table One. There are no uncorrected acuity standards for pilot applicants. They were dropped about 5 years ago. Now, there are refractive limits only and they are rather generous. Your corneal scar may or may not need a waiver depending on specifics of the case. You must have vision correctable to 20/20 in each eye at distance and near. They almost never waive that for pilot applicants.
  2. MEPS is a complete sham. Laziest POS doctors I’ve ever seen. They don’t care about getting it right. Just collecting a paycheck. You can win this, just keep fighting it. Don’t give up.
  3. Thanks O Face and Burt for confirming the path forward. I'm super excited he's flying with the local unit and he just got hired by NetJets as well. FC I is complete, although WP was a bit touch and go. They find stuff even parents didn't know about! This forum is a great resource. Happy I can contribute a little now and then. Cheers. Steve
  4. Thank you, will do. Never too early to start learning the ways of the AF.
  5. My son got hired to fly C-17s at the local Reserve unit. He was verbally hired in December and they have no idea when he will get picked up for OTS/UPT/SERE, etc. They don't think it will be until next year and he obviously isn't getting paid at this time. However, they want him to swear in next week despite no timetable for moving forward. Is this normal? Is taking the oath akin to signing a contract? Does one incur an obligation when they take the oath or does that only come with signing a contract? I'm confused by the timing of events. Thanks in advance.
  6. Pretty much what the optometrist said- the flight doc just needs to confirm you meet all flight standards before you start flying. You don't need to repeat the FC I since it's good for four years, so no worries about whether your prescription is within standard. It's just to confirm that you meet standards for distant/near acuity, depth perception, air puff eye pressure, etc. using either your glasses or contact lenses or both. They will also check your blood pressure, listen to your heart, and all the other good stuff that goes along with a routine exam. In regards to eyes and vision, the primary purpose is mostly to make sure that you have a current set of glasses, especially those highly desirable aircrew specs. No one is expecting a problem at this point.
  7. You are correct. Trained pilots are required to meet FC II standards which are significantly more lenient than FC I. If you don’t meet FC II standards waivers are given for most everything at that point. The only time a trained pilot gets DQ’d is when there is a safety of flight concern or when they don’t meet retention standards. There really isn’t an FC II exam comparable to the FC I process. You are required to have an annual PHA, which is done by the flight doc and that’s pretty much it.
  8. Annual eye exams are not required for people wearing solely glasses. You are only required to have annual exams if you want to wear contact lenses when you fly for the AF because that requires you to be in the soft contact lens program. If you want to wear them for cosmetic reasons, you don't have to be enrolled in the program, but I suspect you'd have to pay for the contact lens care off base (you typically have to buy your own contact lenses either way). Historically, you had to be in the contact lens program if you chose to wear contact lenses for ANY reason while at UPT, but they changed the policy a couple of years ago to say it was only required if you wore contacts when flying. Correction: The change to the soft contact lens policy from a couple of years ago was to allow trained pilots (and other aircrew) to wear contact lenses off duty without having to enroll in the soft contact lens program. I thought it applied to UPT students, but it does not. If you wear contact lenses off duty during UPT, you are still required to be enrolled in the program and, thus, would be required to have an annual eye exam. Is anyone going to know if you do wear contact lenses on your time? Probably not. The vision check at the flight docs office is basically visual acuity (ie. 20/20 distant and near) and depth perception. You will only be referred to optometry if you don't meet standards with your glasses. I also believe they discontinued annual color vision testing at your annual PHA so that's one less thing to worry about. From what I've heard, glasses work OK at UPT. If you move on to airframes with certain helmet system (JHMCS, JSAM, F-35), contact lenses are often far more practical for compatibility reasons. Spectacles don't fit well under them and are not comfortable at all when wearing the helmets. No worries on the questions. I'm retired. BTW- eye infections are incredibly rare if you don't sleep in your contact lenses and otherwise give your eyes a break from them now and then. Steve
  9. Routine eye exams are not required by AF policy. They only time you are required to see the optometrist is if you fail part of the vision screening at the flight doc office or if you wear contact lenses (annual eye exams required). I've heard of some UPT commanders requiring eye exams off all UPT entrants just to catch any underlying vision problems that might impact UPT performance, but that is a one off decision.
  10. Your IFC I is good for four years (I believe). Unless you are delayed to such a degree that you won't finish UPT before the four years is up, your refraction is not going to be rechecked during that time. Even if you go in for an eye exam, they won't do the full cycloplegic refraction required to formally measure refractive error. So no worries.
  11. I've always assumed the 1 week/month, 6 month follow-up was a requirement for new contact lens wearers. If you are in an approved lens prior to showing up, I would expect the optometrist will enroll you in the soft contact lens program at UPT.
  12. Yep that's it. Air Force changed the standard from 25 arc sec (line D) to 40 arc sec (line B) about five years ago.
  13. You must correctly identify line B. Three correct answers. Line A is there for practice only.
  14. Padre PRK is a non issue in most cases. In fact most people who have a good outcome won’t need a waiver. I wouldn’t worry about it unless you think you have a problem with your eyes/vision. You will need a copy of your pre/post and surgical records for your Flying Class I. The folks at Wright-Patt will take care of everything and should let you know what needs to be done. Best of luck. Let me know if you have any other questions. Steve
  15. I don't think there's any way to bypass MEPS. I know someone who recently got hired by a reserve unit and MEPS was the first step. You are correct that MEPS is a crap shoot and can certainly complicate things un-necessarily.
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