Stuart (and others who might be interested). I guess the "coping strategies" used by we "colour blind" people use depend on the degree of colour blindness. I can only speak from my own experiences.
I don't recall the exact name of my "affliction", but mine is realtively mild. Red and green are the usual problem colours. I have problems generally with the finer shades of red and green. I actually had no idea I had a problem until about 2nd of 3rd year high school when a guy came around doing vocational guidance testing and I had all sorts of problems with the "Ishahara (?)Test" - the book where the pages have numbers made up of coloured dots. It was then I realised why I sometimes said something was light green when it was light grey, or dark brown instead of dark red. I do, though, still see most variations of red and green as somthing that I identify as red and green, but clearly I don't see it the same as you "normal" people do, either as colour or as intensity. If you are wearing a red or green shirt I know you are. And I love red cars. I see red or green traffic signals - if you turned the lamp set upside down I would know it so I don't go by the "top" and "bottom" light to decide if I go through the intersection! In the garden I'll see a red rose but I have to look for it - it doesn't jump out at me the way a yellow or white one does. In terms of coping strategies, the conscious ones at least are pretty simple. If I play golf I will never use a red tee because it will be a "single use" job! I'll never find it again - so I use yellow or white. If I'm choosing clothes or anything to do with colours (and I hate shopping with a passion) I seek the advice of my very colour wise wife. The biggest major coping strategy though was to have to forget my lifelong ambition to be an airline pilot. The first strategy then was a change of career and I became a civil engineer. When my first posting with the (then) DMR in NSW took me to Wentworth, and the resident works engineer turned out to the president of the Sunraysia Gliding Club, the second major strategy was to take him up on his invitation to go gliding, so flying became my recreation. And, in one of those life-numbers that you don't want to work on too often, I see from my logbook that on 18th December it will be 40 years since that day that changed my life for the better! Other than that, it's not something I really think about, nor am overtly conscious of most of the time. As I sit here looking out my window across the lovely green garden into the clear blue sky it all looks great - whatever colour it really is! Allan Armistead ph (02) 6249 6470, fax (02) 6249 6555, mobile 0413 013 911 PO Box 908, Dickson ACT 2602, Australia "When once you have tasted flight, you will always walk with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you always will be." Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Stuart & Kerri FERGUSON Sent: Sunday, 27 November 2005 9:43 To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.' Subject: [Aus-soaring] Colour and other vision issues. 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? >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Aus-soaring mailing list >>Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net >>To check or change subscription details, visit: >>http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Aus-soaring mailing list >Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net >To check or change subscription details, visit: >http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
