Alright I have been flying now for about 13-14 hours plus or minus a few hours and have been afraid of getting my medical! The medical which is holding me back from soloing has got me bumbed considering that I have color deficiency with Red/Green... Its not that I cant see Red and Green but different variations of Red and Green when close together I wouldnt be able to tell them apart... When looking up in the sky at night and a plane that is 4-8 thousand feet up I can see the variations in Red and Green! But the test for color vision I always fail... I am worried about the out come of this and was thinking that my flying days are over... Does having this "color definciency" keep me from having a PPL or am I limited to sport pilot cert? Can I have a PPL with limitations (ie no night flying)? I have done plenty of research but nothing that really answers my questions! Any info on this subject would be appreciated!!!

Thank you

Way back when, we'd get a call from a local FAA Inspector requesting a 'light gun' vision test for a private pilot aspirant.  So we'd squirt them some of the repertoire.  We made a point to brief airport flight schools - telling their check riders to call ahead and get a plan.  Don't remember any failures at Merrill Field.

You know. I have a very mild red green color deficiency myself. Funny thing is, i can tell any of the lights apart from one another, and i have never noticed any problem with it until you put those damned color tiles in front of me.

My medical examiner and I have determined that there is some sort of pea soup / baby poop green that i cant distinguish.

when he does the color slides with me, I'll get about 70% of them... but the odd thing is. on the slides where it says like "56" i'll not be able to see the 5 well but the 6 clearly for example. the doctor says thats odd... because i red green color deficient person shouldn't see anything on that slide.

I have been to about 4 different doctors... none of them have ever given me a restriction. i think as long as you dont miss a lot of them you should do ok. there is a minimum passing standard that seems to be around 70.

should you get a restriction, i know another CFI who has had one. he said he basically got the restriction removed by doing a "test" with an FAA examiner.

the test i had always heard of involved looking at light gun signals from the tower. they shine a few random lights at you - either red, green or white. You name them correctly you pass.

however, this CFI said he had to do that. then they made him do the same thing with a plane that happened to be taxiing by at a distance.  after that he had to explain the colors he saw on a sectional chart to the examiner.

i was surprised it was so in depth, but once it was over he had the restriction removed and was issued a waiver.

he shows the doctor the waiver on his medical renewal and they dont even bother with that part of the test.

TXGrunt wrote on Oct 24^th, 2010 at 9:41am:
Wasn't the color requirement originally for identifying position lights, red - green - white so you could see and avoid, if necessary?  Seems with the newer requirements for rotating beacons and allowing super bright strobes to be co-located with position lights, the ability to identify colors becomes secondary to the basic ability to see a flashing light.

TXGrunt wrote on Nov 24^th, 2010 at 12:37pm:
All downhill from here  .