<p>I haven't heard of the restrictions of only wearing glasses within the 20/70 limit... to me that doesn't make sense... I would want a pilot with 20/70 or worse to HAVE to have glasses while flying lol. But for now that's all I know... lol wow that is pretty bad... two minutes apart... :)</p>
<p>They are more leanient AFTER they invest over $1 million in training on you! Some pilots wear glasses. However, being PQ before UPT is not so easy.</p>
<p>ah! there're so many contradictory statements.. lol</p>
<p>are you or are you not able to wear glasses/ contacts? from what i've read, as years go by and you're already trained to fly, you <might> can wear them, but when you're starting out you've gotta be 20/70 or better? straight from the 06-07 Academy Catalog ""Qualification for potential flying duties requires uncorrected distant visual acuity no worse than 20/50 (pilot) and 20/200 (navigator), correctable to 20/20 in each eye"" Now this says that if you've got, say, 20/50 vision, you've gotta be able to 'correct' it ie, glasses or contacts. but, if you're 20/60, you arent even potentially qualified, ie, no glasses or contacts allowed.</might></p>
<p>to PRK, once again from the catalog: "the refractive error limits are... +2 to-1 and .75 astigmatism for pilot. +3 to -2.25 and 2 astigmatism for navigator. well i've seen that for PRK, you've gotta have refractive error of at LEAST -3.25. so if you've got a -2 refractive error, and acuity of say, 20/60, you cant be qualified at all, cuz you cant have PRK and your eyes arent good enough. but if you've got a -4 refractive error and a 20/80 eyesight, you CAN be potentially qualified cuz you can have PRK. </p>
<p>the possibilities are endless.. sorry for bein so long-winded, just wanted to try to get straight answers</p>
<p>From what I've read before, PRK is not a set in stone number based process. I'm sure there is some gray areas or exceptions or what not. There's a lot of factors that go into the PRK process (as far as selecting who can and can't get it) the specifics, I'm not sure of. What I have heard most CONSISTENTLY is that glasses are fine in UPT on... we still have some time for the details I suppose...</p>
<p>Keep in mide, the air force is made of PEOPLE...therefore individual cases are looked at, as shocking as that is. So, contradictions to rules that seem set in stone is possbile and probable.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that these may change for aircraft. For example, glasses in a F-15 would probably not be a good idea so much with 8 G turns....but I doubt a C-17 or C-21 needs to perform maneuvers that are going to take the glasses off your face that often.</p>
<p>very true hornet, i failed to look at that..</p>