Prk

Colleges and Universities A-Z Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs
21

<p>wow... rather just get the surgery</p>

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<p>You are better off waiting and here is why: If you get the surgery done prior to going to flight school and something goes wrong guess who doesn't get to be a pilot? Although PRK is done daily on hundreds of people throughout the country there are very real complications to the procedure and some people can have bad outcomes. If you wait until after you have gone through flight school and have been winged you will have alot more options if something goes awry with the surgery. The military will be more willing to work with you to keep you in a flying billet after you have been trained than if something goes wrong before you even get to flight school. </p>

<p>Just wait a bit, get winged and then get the surgery if you still want it. (This only applies to those who are waiverable)</p>

23

<p>^^^ I concur.</p>

<p>I personally know someone who had the surgery and it did more damage, she actually had to get a cornea transplant.</p>

<p>You can't wear contacts flying because of the pressure pulling G's.
Also you will not be wearing the BCGs you can wear your own, so if you are comfortable in glasses, than its no biggie.</p>

<p>DS is eligible for the waiver since he is 1.5, he is considering doing the PRK, but he will wait and weigh the options.</p>

24

<p>Still, the air force is the best in the business in prk and so I won't feel too uncomfortable putting my eyes in their hands.</p>

25

<p>good points... i guess i've always just assumed i'd need it...</p>

26

<p>yep me too... but now i know i'm (potentially) waiverable, it makes me happy :) but we've got alot of time to enjoy before then!</p>

27

<p>Alright, I'm not an optometrist, but here's what mine told me...
Myopia: -2.75, -2.50
Astigmatism: -.5
Eye Refraction Level: -2.50</p>

<p>So does this mean I won't have to get PRK and am waiverable? I have 20/400 vision without my contacts, so flying without contacts or glasses should something go wrong would be very, very bad.</p>

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<p>What happens if the surgery goes bad after the flight training is completed? Sounds as if the AF has just wasted a pilot training slot.</p>

29

<p>AF is very carefull with its screening process. The Academy screens the candidates at the end of their 3dig year. If you qualify the surgery will be scheduled early in your 2dig year. They do not look to waste pilot slots.</p>

30

<p>HNeedle, sounds like your eyesight is better than the average bear! YEA!</p>

31

<p>I'm undergoing the process right now. Right now they have about 100-130 people on the list to get the surgery during first semester of 2dig year. We're all out of our contacts right now (for 30 days) because we have consultations at the end of the month. They'll check to see if our eyes are okay so that we can proceed with the surgery. My roommate's boyfriend (who is a 2dig and had PRK) said that some people get DQed if their astigmatism is too bad. Our surgery is later this year in August, during the first week of school. They let us know a year after that if we're PQ or not. There can be complications with the surgery, though it is not common. Some people need follow-up surgery but I don't know of any case where that's happened. Then again, I'm just learning this stuff as I'm getting my emails from the optometrist. They only waive about half of the kids getting PRK for pilot slots. Waivers are given based on overall ranking in your class. Board Order of Merit, that kind of stuff.</p>

32

<p><a href="http://www.pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF246-Bee.gif%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF246-Bee.gif&lt;/a>
Don't be that guy.</p>

33

<p>lol. Without contacts, I would probably end up the same as that guy!</p>

34

<p>rofl amazing</p>

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<p>The military will be much more willing to get you back into the cockpit to avoid "wast[ing] a pilot training slot." For someone who is fully winged you are more likely to be allowed than someone who is not to figure out with the doctors a way to get your eyesight back to where it should be. For those who have not completed the training they will still do whatever it takes to try and repair it; however, they are not going to then send you to flight school.</p>

36

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<p>It is not the Air Force, it is totally surgeon dependent (not as much as with LASIK though). But you will still be in good hands. As an aside I think the Navy has the AF beat when it comes to refractive surgery, almost all of the research regarding military flying and refractive surgery in the US comes out of Navy ophthalmology in California. There have also been some studies done out of some other countries.</p>

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<p>The conversation is irrelevant since USAFA cadets actually get the surgery during their 3rd year at the AFA. Don't know how the misconception arose that they didn't get it until after pilot training. This makes a lot more sense.</p>

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<p>I think we are working on conflicting information. Apparently, these who are actually getting it are doing so BEFORE they commence flight training. The AFA catalog is also pretty specific in requiring 20/50 corrected to 20/20 PRIOR to flight training. So I am not sure where the other info came from about going through flight school at 20/400.</p>

40

<p>There are waivers for eyesight, within certain limits. At my physical, the eye doc informed me that I qualified for PRK or a waiver. She recommended that I go with the waiver, then (optional) PRK in a few years. There are still concerns about 19-20 aged people's eyes not being completely stable, therefore they like to give some people waivers rather than PRK.</p>