Monocular Visioned Pilots

iwannarv · #1 04-09-2012, 07:40 PM

Hey all,

I've wondered for awhile how many other pilots on the board may have a 'monocular vision' impairment. This is a sort of random thought that crossed my mind this evening.

I was a very cross-eyed child growing up, wearing corrective lenses (for eye straitness) since age 2 up through middle school. Two eye surgeries at a young age have fixed most of my eye allignment issues. One eye still drifts off as I lose focus, but anyways... This caused be to grow up monocular-sighted.

Monocular visioned see'ers, with two good eyes, can operate the eyes independently. I only use or 'focus' out of my right eye, however I can mentally make an effort and switch my focus over to my left eye. Both eyes are 20/15 vision, I just don't use the left eye as I look at objects, only get a perspective from the right side. Peripherial vision is fine on both sides.

This has caused me to have ZERO depth preception (on an AME test). Walls are especially difficult as I walk into them often (kidding on myself). This wasn't an issue on my medical, however, it just had to be reviewed and accepted by a 'higher up' AME. My personal AME thought I may have a night restriction on my commercial license, but that wasn't so. I have never had an issue with depth while flying, and was told by different sources that I would do fine in an airplane, and a few that said I wasn't going to make a resonable pilot. (500 hrs later, I'm doing just fine).

A bit of a ramble, but anybody else have this impairment, and are depth-robbed because of it?

engineerorange · #2 04-09-2012, 07:56 PM

I too was born with crossed eyes and that caused monocular vision. I had muscle surgery when I was a little less than two and then did lots and lots of eye exercises with a specialist in grade school.

I believe the educated folks call this condition amblyopia caused by straybismus.

I don't know that I am depth-robbed because of it, I think I have some depth perception.

Because of all the exercises and therapy, I no longer have a dominant eye and switch back and forth unintentionally. Sometimes I am even able to put the two images together and focus with both eyes at once. I also learned how to cheat on the depth perception test that I think you are referring to because of all the hours of exercises. If you close one eye and look at the image and then close the other eye and look at the image, the one that moves the furthest off-center is the one that is "closer to you"

My AME made a pretty big deal out of it when I got my student pilot license and eventually called the regional flight surgeon before he would issue the yellow card. I got a letter later from OKC saying I was good to go as long as I notified them if my condition changed.

Brantel · #3 04-09-2012, 07:57 PM

My 6yo daughter has morning glory syndrome in her right eye. She is basically blind in it. Other than the occasional wondering of that eye, most people would never know it.

She has amazingly adapted to it and never seems to miss depth perception.

She can't understand why we jump in 3D movies though......

engineerorange · #4 04-09-2012, 08:10 PM

Yes, 3D movies are absolutely pointless, unless you just think you look cool in the goofy glasses.

rmcgann · #5 04-09-2012, 08:33 PM

I was born with a lazy right eye and had corrective surgery at 18months. This was corrected again in my mid 30s for purely cosmetic reasons. I am classically amblyopic, (30/20 uncorrected left, 20/20 corrected right) and have never had any depth perception. I don't bother with glasses other than reading (age is a bitch). I am now late fifties and this 'condition' has never been an issue for me. I have been flying for the past 12 years with no problems. The acuteness of my left eye vision and a life of using cues for spatial placement more than compensates for a lack of 3D vision. But then again, I don't know what I may be missing.

cheers
Ron

iwannarv · #6 04-09-2012, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brantel

She can't understand why we jump in 3D movies though......

HA! My family went to Disney World when I was young, and we went to a 3D movie. I never got what was supposed to be so cool about it

, till my first flight physical many years later. Up close is tough at times though.. Catching a ball, missed hand shakes, banging the water glass against my dinner plate still happens, but outside of that at a distance, I have no problem.

Being Monocular cue'd I understand that we are much more keyed in to changes in shape, movement, light, etc, to allow and compensate for depth. When asked how I'm able to land an airplane, the answer is easy to explain that you look at the horizon, and not the runway under your nose.

Like riding a motorcycle in a turn. If you look strait down at the ground, that's where you go - lay over. Makes it a little more clear to others.

jrs402 · #7 04-10-2012, 07:48 AM

Lost the vision in my right eye when I was 4 years old grew up that way don't know any different. With 13,000 +hours of ag in fixed wing and rotorcraft I am holding my own. I would not want to have lost vision in one eye later in life.

John

iwannarv · #8 04-10-2012, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrs402

Lost the vision in my right eye when I was 4 years old grew up that way don't know any different. With 13,000 +hours of ag in fixed wing and rotorcraft I am holding my own. I would not want to have lost vision in one eye later in life.

John

Good to see an ag pilot chime in. My current job in the ag supply industry includes a project working closely with aerial applicators. It is something that I do have an itch to do, maybe, someday....

Jgibson · #9 04-10-2012, 11:09 AM

Lost sight due to wayward arrow, many surgeries trying to save, finally had it removed. Been flying 35 years or so with only one eye with no problems. (saw things on the 'demonstrated ability' flight that the 'normal' FAA examiner didn't). Have only about 1200 hours (I've owned 13 planes to this point) in that time with 500 or so in tailwheel airplanes. I'm an excellent marksman, raced motorcycles, cars, boats, and basically have done anything 'normally' sighted people do. Now about those 3D movies......could never figure out why everything just looked out of focus instead of entertaining as it apparently was to others!

longranger · #10 04-10-2012, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmcgann

I was born with a lazy right eye and had corrective surgery at 18months. This was corrected again in my mid 30s for purely cosmetic reasons. I am classically amblyopic, (30/20 uncorrected left, 20/20 corrected right) and have never had any depth perception. I don't bother with glasses other than reading (age is a bitch). I am now late fifties and this 'condition' has never been an issue for me. I have been flying for the past 12 years with no problems. The acuteness of my left eye vision and a life of using cues for spatial placement more than compensates for a lack of 3D vision. But then again, I don't know what I may be missing.

cheers
Ron

I have a similar story. My lazy right eye was surgically corrected at age 3. I remember doing the coordination exercises until about age 10 or so, and after that was able to do without glasses until I applied for a driver's license. My corrected right eye is somewhat farsighted (and getting slightly more so as time goes on...) and my left eye is nearsighted at about 20/80, IIRC. I function very well without glasses, as my brain automatically uses whichever eye can see the best for a given distance.

At 56 my arms are still way short enough to do without readers, and I can still read a license plate from 4-5 car lengths back. I have no problem with the depth perception test, and 3D movies do work for me. Even so, both the California DMV and the FAA say that due to my left eye I need to wear corrective lenses. I actually had an eye doctor tell me one time that the vision in my right eye is good enough that he could get the restriction removed from my driver's license if I lost my left one.