Have you ever fallen asleep while flying?

Fair enough, but back to the point that Peter made about confidentiality of your medical conversation with your AME, I would not rely on it either….

Of the countries where I hold medicals, the US, and the UAE have an online questionnaire that must be filled in before going to the AME (and Australia has just introduced it as well)…. To me, the intention is to force you to disclose as much as you can to the NAA without the ability to discuss any nuance with a doctor which perhaps can be subject to doctor/patient confidentiality because it’s too late by then: you’ve already submitted the information….

AnthonyQ wrote:

confidentiality of your medical conversation with your AME, I would not rely on it either….

Me neither. This is not limited to AMEs. First level is that doctors have a duty to report any relevant issues if they know you hold a licence (pilot’s, driver’s, firearms). But you have to tell him. So the next level is giving them access to a database where they have to check whether you have such a licence. It can be only GPs, or even specialists. You can always go to a different country. Well, as long as they don’t cooperate in this.

I’m not sure what is the current state even in my own country, but doctor-patient confidentiality definitely has holes.

@Peter Never wrote it was true for any country. I think we have level one for driver’s licences and limited to GPs. And I think government is working on level two for firearms licences and that will include specialists (so shrinks are covered). But, as I wrote, I’m not sure.

Why would I tell an optician that I’m a pilot? The only reason I can think of is that I want an advice from him. I wouldn’t find such practice acceptable. And I would take that response as nonsense. AFAIK there are recommendations and some choices are IMHO bad (and he should be able to advise you on that), but illegal? I can’t believe this is a common practice (perhaps in the UK, but on the continent?). Don’t know how recent a prescription must be, I’m under the impression I don’t even need one (only when I want my insurance company to pay for them) – I’m not aware of any law that prohibits sale of corrective lenses to people who don’t need them.

The rules for doctors and driving in the UK are that you have to tell the patient if you feel they’re unfit to drive, but it’s up to the patient to tell the DVLA. However, if you then see them driving about you then have a duty to breach confidentiality and inform the DVLA. Since the Glaswegian bin driver incident, people have tightened up a lot on this. I don’t see how it would be different for a pilot’s license.

In the UK, unless you have an actual “disease” of the eye beyond the usual need to correct vision for odd shapes (short/longsightedness, astigmatism) and deterioration of flexibility of the lens with age (presbyopia), you will never see an ophtalmologist, only an optometrist, which tend to work in association with and on the premises of an optician. The optometrist does all the checks (including inerocular pressure, retinal examination, etc.) and writes the prescription.

So when I need to get the “extended eye examination” completed ahead of the class 1 revalidation, it gets done there, they fill in the CAA form which I then take to my AME for the medical – which means the optician knows if the optometrist tells him/her or writes it on the prescription.

You can avoid this by getting the prescription done at one place, and the glasses made at another. Or get the prescription one day, and come back a week later to order the glasses when they have forgotten all about you.