I feel I have to add my views on the comments
flying around about colour vision and flying.
I am a glider pilot and a light aircraft pilot
and I also fail miserably any colour vision
perception test (and I was a guinea pig for the
University of NSW over this enduring many of
their weird tests in the name of science) and yes
its a red/green issue however I have never ever
had a problem with colour perception whilst
flying over many years. Nor has any instructor
ever commented that I had a problem. In practice
none of the "experts" in this area have ever been
able to show that a pilot with a colour
perception issue was somehow unsafe or incapable
of flying an aircraft in day or night conditions
to the same level of safety as colour "normal" pilots.
CASA as it now is, years ago lost the fight to
stop pilots with so called colour perception
issues from flying at night thanks to the court
action taken by Dr Pape. See www.aopa.com.au for
his excellent paper on the history of the so
called colour vision standard and his fight for
fair play by CASA. The view of CASA up till then
was that somehow it was unsafe for pilots who
failed the colour perception test to fly at night
but safe for them to fly around during the day or
in thick cloud. You could be flying through the
thickest cloud imaginable during day time but as
soon as last light hit it was unsafe somehow?
bizarre to say the least and with no scientific
evidence to support their case which is why CASA
lost. Dr Pape in his extensive research could
find no evidence anywhere of any
accident/incident being attributed to colour
perception issues and this was not refuted by CASA.
The only restriction imposed by CASA now is you
cannot gain an APTL (airline licence) and this is
more to do with international bodies not agreeing
on the standard that should apply then any
problem with flying for the airlines. Pilots with
colour perception issues can fly around at night,
in the thickest cloud etc all in a standard
aircraft without CASA or anyone else imposing any
restrictions or requiring "modified" instruments.
Ironically now of course modern light aircraft
are making ever increasing use of colour
instrumentation, GPS etc and complete glass
instrumentation is becoming more common. No
manufacturer that I know of feels they have to
make special versions available for pilots who
fail standard colour vision tests or issue
warnings or limit some pilots from flying these
aircraft. You can get a Cessna 172 now with full
glass instrumentation just like the airlines fly!
I fly a GPS equipped C182 and its colourful
screen is a joy to use not a problem for me.
To the point finally for those who have read
through this, if there any problems with the
readability of the displays on the FLARM it will
apply to all pilots not just the ones with a colour perception issue.
And lastly its such a pity so many pilots my age
were stopped from pursing an aviation career in
the seventies and earlier because of the misguided actions of CASA in the past.
Mark
At 18:17 25/11/2005, you wrote:
Derek, Nigel and Dad
Eventually I'm sure that someone will come up
with a system that mounts right on your glasses
and gives a warning signal straight to your
eyes, or generates some sort of virtual heads-up
display overlayed on your view of the world.
In the meantime, LEDs are now available in
white, blue, red, green and orange. So perhaps
a non-standard colour set is suitable for those
who are colourblind red and green ? I only
observed the FLARM units briefly, and maybe if
multi-colour LEDs are used this is still a
problem if you needed to mount 2 or more LEDs
where only one multicolour one is used in a "normal" FLARM display.
As for my $0.02 worth, although I spent 5 hours
wishing I could die instead of puking over and
over again while riding in the back of the
DG-1000 (not sure if it was dehydration,
something that I ate, or perhaps not being used
to continued 2G turns in gaggles while
swivelling my head to watch all the other
traffic ?), I think that a FLARM repeater
display in the back of a two seater would be
useful so that the workload could be shared amongst both pilots.
Jason
At 03:45 PM 25/11/2005, you wrote:
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C5F17B.0685231D"
2 days: By the end of the flight the next day
the power led was flashing , but the unit still registered other gliders.
Nigel, I think the unit would be improved
immensely by the addition of a LCD display
instead of the LEDs (and a glareshield
), plus
a voice option instead of the alarm (traffic 12 high
)
Derek
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of RF Developments Pty Ltd
Sent: Friday, 25 November 2005 3:04 PM
To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'
Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] FLARM @ KEEPIT
Derek,
How long did those AA batteries last?
Nigel
Nigel Andrews
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Derek Ruddock
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 12:41 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] FLARM @ KEEPIT
The general impression I got was that they worked very well.
In no way can they be regarded as a substitute
for a good lookout, and this point was made very clear at the briefings.
I personally never had an alarm whilst
thermalling, although I understand some pilots did.
I had 2 alarms during the course of the
contest: in both cases I had not seen the approaching glider first:
our paths were not collision courses and
avoiding action was not required. I was,
however, pleased that the presence of the other
glider was drawn to my attention before I had
noticed it. This alone convinced me of the value of the FLARM.
Quite frankly I rarely looked at it, so I found
it definitely NOT to be a distraction in the cockpit.
There are some minor issues regarding the
design: the unit needs a glare shield, and
perhaps a different display, as the threats are
displayed on red or green LEDs, and thus
present problems to colour blind pilots. I
believe there are also some minor problems to be sorted out with the software
All in all, I believe that the trial was very successful
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geoff Kidd
Sent: Friday, 25 November 2005 1:17 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Subject: [Aus-soaring] FLARM @ KEEPIT
1 Would anyone care to offer any feedback on
how the Flarm trial went at Keepit?
Did anyone find them useful?
2 Gee it's been comparatively quiet on this
forum lately. Doesn't anyone have anything controversial to say?
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