I am one of the " Colour Blind" pilots. I started flying in 1964 and the only
options were day only/ radio only. At that stage lights were still an option in
towers and VHF was just coming in. My career prospects were " restricted to the
carriage of freight only by day." Anyway, like an idiot I pressed on and by
1967 I had Commercial #4944 and started flying C180's as a Class2 ag pilot.My
career had sort of peaked.
However, due to Dr. Pape bringing the case to the AAT he won the right to fly
at night. I seem to remember that he held a Commercial plus Class1 instrument
rating at the time.
CAA or whatever, in their usual way, made it a on off. He then brought a case
of a young helicopter Commercial pilot to the AAT. After a lot of obstruction
and nonsense from the authority, they won the case and everyone who was flying
on the dispensation was retested, god knows why, and issued with a night flying
priviliges.They could have grounded all of us, because the Commercial required
a certain amount of night flying anyway,but no one thought of that.
I flew my first "legal" night flight in 1997, almost 20 years after I started
working as a pilot. I could now legally night spray.
The major thing that then controlled your career is the fact that you could not
be in command of an aircraft of 12,500 [ 5,700kg?] lbs or greater or fly in
International airspace. This is still the case today, to the best of my
knowledge ,so most of us have had careers in Ag, or flying aircraft up to that
weight on charter, freight etc. I would imagine there might be some Fo's in
regional systems and obviously helicopter operations present a fairly level
playing field.
I ceased to fly Commercially about 10 years ago but still drive a Pawnee on the
odd weekend, although like most, find dealing with AVMed increasingly diificult.
My point with this ramble is while there are limitations on a pilot with a
red/green deficiency, it is still possible to have a rewarding career in
aviation if you are not interested in heavy jets. Also, the road that Dr. Tate
pioneered is still virtually unique in world aviation. We are out of step with
the rest of the world on this issue, and knowing how we got there, I doubt we
will change. My guess at the back of all of the new information is the use of
"Glass Cockpits" and the subtle factors colour may play. However, there has
been no case of an accident being attributed to anyone with a "Colour
perception endorsement"
Most people will not be aware they have the problem unless tested. The ratio is
2 out of 10 males [ Aviation standard] and it is very rare in women, although
your mother carries the deficient gene.
I was fairly happy with the way it all turned out and hope this adds a bit to a
very misunderstood issue
Dave Shearer
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