Mark King wrote
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,
Back in the 60's and 70's you could get a CPL while colour blind, you
just could not hold any form of instrument rating including the Class 4, now
known as the NVFR rating. Then some time in the 70's or early 80's they made
it a requirement of a CPL to hold a Class 4 instrument rating. However you
could not hold a CPL or higher if you had any form of vision correction
until 1977 or 1978.
Not being colour blind I do not understand the coping strategies colour
blind people must be using every day - however back in the late 70's I was
doing a night arrival into Perth and I had a friend with me board who was
one of these colour blind CPL holders - there were some red displaced
threshold warning lights (in those days both ends of the runways were lit
green) and this did cause him some problems understanding what he was
seeing. One example I know, and not scientifically based, but I felt worth
sharing.
As far as FLARM is concerned (I have not used one yet) aren't the green
displays the outer circle and the red the inner circle? That alone would
resolve the colour issue, along with variable tones.
SDF
PS - have you ever considered how hard it would be for the audio impaired to
become involved in gliding?
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mark king
Sent: Saturday, 26 November 2005 5:17 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] FLARM @ KEEPIT
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 LED's (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 LED's, 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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>
>
>
>
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