Color Vision Fitness Program – Pilot Medical Solutions helps pilots improve and maintain color vision discrimination ability, familiarizes pilot applicants with FAA color vision testing, offers training and guidance to improve color vision testing ability and helps pilots who perceive the colors necessary for safe performance of airman duties to pass the latest FAA required color vision tests. We have helped thousands of pilots with color vision issues. We strongly recommend that all new pilots practice properly and train before their first FAA color vision test and medical examination, even if you have passed other color vision tests in the past. While the FAA allows pilots to take the newly required tests multiple times, repeating poor experiences can reinforce the negativity and it usually creates a stressful environment thereby further reducing the potential for success. Pilot Medical Solutions offers the latest tools and training based upon recent studies, providing a progressive positive experience. This incremental comprehensive training is also the most likely path to strengthen or correct mild color vision deficiencies. Most of this essential training can be performed on a pilot’s home computer. We have found the latest and most helpful ways to resolve bagatelle color deficiencies and help pilots make effective corrections. Practice and training before FAA exams is allowed by the FAA and it is crucially important for those who must take the latest computerized color vision testing.
14 CFR § 67.103(c), § 67.203(c), and § 67.303(c) share the exact same wording across First-Class, Second-Class, and Third-Class FAA medical certificates. To be considered acceptable, the applicant must be able to perceive those colors necessary for the safe performance of airman duties. In operational terms, the FAA has traditionally interpreted this law as the requirement to distinguish aviation signal colors—specifically aviation red, aviation green, and white—in order to be capable of clearly interpreting aeronautical charts, instrument displays, and control tower light-gun signals. Due to recent changes in FAA policy, the FAA does not accept tests validated only by the pilot or Aviation Medical Examiner (AME). Again, Pilot Medical Solutions helps pilots train to take the latest tests accepted by the FAA. This training that can help pilots with valid color vision discrimination to pass an acceptable color vision test.
Recent studies show that some therapies may bolster color vision discrimination ability. Pilot Medical Solutions has recommended that pilots speak to their personal doctor about the efficacy and application of these therapeutic technologies for the potential benefit of bolstering color vision strength and or color vision fitness. It is important to note that any pilots who’s physician recommends color vision therapy or fitness programs – should also speak with their doctor about ongoing use to maintain desirable or potentially needed effects. Like any fitness program, beneficial results can be lost if exercise or therapy is not sustained or maintained and individual results may vary.
Over the years color vision tests have been added and removed from the FAA accepted list. In 2002, the crash of Federal Express Flight 1478 – Boeing 727-232 (N497FE) – in Tallahassee, Florida was investigated by the NTSB. The report stated that color vision was a factor in the crash and provided recommendations to the FAA concerning color vision testing. As a result of the NTSB and other findings, a dramatic shift in Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) Color Vision testing requirements now discourages new pilots and favors older pilots. This change has been extremely controversial, even among Board Certified Aviation Medicine practitioners. With these new limited testing options U.S. civilian pilots are now being tested more stringently than U.S. Military pilots. As of January 1st, 2025 there are only three FAA accepted tests:
There are several caveats and pitfalls to this new FAA policy. The FAA stopped administering the Operational Color Vision Test that many pilots have been allowed to take in the past. This test involved the use of a light-gun along with chart identification and was considered to validate operational ability. Some pilots still have an FAA letter of demonstrated ability and in most cases these are still valid. Many airman who wish to obtain a higher class certification have been forced to pass the new color vision tests. Again, the three (3) color vision tests listed above are the only FAA accepted tests. Many AME’s have not purchased the latest equipment nor the right to administer the new computer tests. This means that pilots testing for the first time are often required to find another practitioner at another location to obtain an FAA accepted color vision test. Pilots who have successfully passed a previously FAA accepted test usually do not require further testing. It is extremely important that pilots be aware of this and not allow the Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) to administer another color vision test once they have passed an FAA accepted color vision test. There are some circumstance when the FAA may require previously approved pilots to re-test. Color vision discrimination can get worse as we get older, especially if there are cataracts (cloudy areas in the lens of the eye). Other things which may effect color vision and compel the FAA to request color vision retesting are:
Download the latest FAA color vision protocol / flow chart Contact Pilot Medical Solutions to find out how to prepare, and hopefully avoid, temporary or permanent FAA medical certification restrictions. If you already have a restriction, Pilot Medical Solutions may be able to help you remove the restriction and obtain unrestricted FAA medical certification. Take a Color Vision Test Online Contact Pilot Medical Solutions – Get help today
COLOR VISION FITNESS Practice Makes Perfect, RIGHT? Actually, most people agree, that only perfect practice makes perfect. Meaning, that we should perfect how we practice then practice perfectly so as to condition for perfection. This appears to be especially true for practicing for an FAA color vision test. The FAA allows you to practice for taking color vision tests and the way that you practice matters. If you simply repeat color vision tests, this can be a negative exercise that may reinforce poor performance. Pilot Medical Solutions has a better way. Not only do we recommend practice methods that reinforce positive outcomes, we also recommend that pilots continue with this practice even beyond the success required to pass FAA medical certification. Yes, you heard it right. Even though the FAA’s new policy rarely requires more than one successful color vision test, we recommend keeping this skill sharp, especially if you found that you could significantly improve your color vision through our proprietary techniques. The recommendation above should not be taken lightly. Our proprietary techniques are not cheating. This is a color vision fitness program. Like any fitness program, if you can improve using certain tools and training techniques, you can also lose the fitness gained. While respected aviation medical professionals disagree on the validity and importance of color vision testing, one should be aware that keeping color vision discrimination ability sharp could certainly play a role in your safety as a pilot. In other words, to the degree color vision ability is essential it should be maintained. So, perfect practice and ongoing training is recommended.
Color Vision Basics What is color blindness? A person with normal trichromatic (three colors) vision can identify over 7 million different colors! However, 8% (1 in 12) of the men and 0.5% (1 in 200) of the women in North America have fewer cones than normal and are said to have a color vision deficiency. Because the overwhelming majority of these people can distinguish colors to some extent, it is inaccurate to label them as color “blind.” Red-green deficiency is the most common color vision abnormality. The mildest forms of this deficiency are protanomaly—where blue-green and red-purple are perceived as an indistinct grayish shade—and deuteranomaly—where green and red-purple are perceived as an indistinct grayish shade. Both of these defects are forms of anomalous trichromatism, which means that blue, green, and red cones are present, but the pigments contained within them are altered. Half of the people with anomalous trichromatism can make precise color matches (but not as precisely as those with normal color vision) and are said to have a simple anomaly, while the other half cannot and are said to have an extreme anomaly. A more pronounced form of red-green deficiency is called dichromatism (two colors), in which one of the three cone types is absent. Dichromatism is divided into two subtypes, protanopia—where blue-green and red-purple are perceived as gray—and deuteranopia—where green and red-purple are perceived as gray. The rarest form of color deficiency is monochromatism (one color), which is divided into rod and cone subtypes. A person with cone monochromatism has good central vision but confuses all colors, because two of the three cone types are missing. A person with rod monochromatism, or achromatopsia (no color), has no cones at all and sees everything in shades of gray. People with achromatopsia have poor vision and difficulty adjusting to bright light, so it’s fortunate that this abnormality affects only 1 person in 33,000 in the United States. Although color vision deficiencies can be caused by eye diseases or normal aging, the majority are inherited as a gene attached to the X chromosome. This explains why men, who have only one X chromosome, are far more susceptible to color vision abnormalities than women, who have two. An affected man passes the color-deficiency gene to all of his daughters, who then become unaffected carriers; his sons get his Y chromosome and have normal color vision. Each son of a carrier female then has a 50-50 chance of getting the gene from his mother. Therefore, the typical scenario is a man inheriting the color-deficiency gene from his maternal grandfather. For a woman to be color deficient, she would have to have an affected father and mother who was at least a carrier; even then, her odds of getting the gene would be only 50-50. How does this affect me as a pilot? How can I find out if I have a color vision deficiency?
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