Farside.

Vision Requirements for an FAA First Class Medical Certificate

14 CFR 67.103
To be able to qualify for a First Class Medical Certificate your vision needs to meet the following:

• Distant Visual Acuity – 20/20 or better in each eye separately with or without corrective lenses
• Corrective lenses must be worn while performing flight duties if unable to meet 20/20 above

• Near Vision – 20/40 or better, Snellen equivalent, at 16″ in each eye separately, with or without corrective lenses
• If age 50 or older, 20/40 or better, Snellen equivalent, at both 16″ and 32″ in each eye separately, with or without corrective lenses

• Ability to perceive colors necessary for safe operation while performing flight duties

• Normal fields of vision
• No acute or chronic pathological condition of either eye
• No adnexa that interferes with eye function
• Any condition that could progress or be aggravated by flying that could affect safety
• Bifoveal fixation and vergence-phoria relationship sufficient to prevent a break-in fusion under conditions that may reasonably be expected to occur in performing airman duties.
• Tests for the factors named above are not required except for persons found to have more than:
  • 1 prism diopter of hyperphoria
  • 6 prism diopters of esophoria,
  • 6 prism diopters of exophoria

• Monovision Corrective Lenses are Not Approved by the FAA for flying duties

ok  so whats the difference between wearing  contacts  and  glasses   thought  they would  be  the  same

4 hours ago, pete_auau said:

ok  so whats the difference between wearing  contacts  and  glasses   thought  they would  be  the  same

Contacts cause irritation and dryness which can be exacerbated in the dry air on an aircraft. I was told during Class 1 medicals to have a spare pair of glasses with me when wearing lenses, and a spare for the spare.

 

This would help avoid the unlikely scenario in the (rather amusing) cartoon above. Instead of mucking about trying to find a contact lens, just pop the other one out, and put on your specs.

The answer is yes, the FAA permits pilots to wear contact lenses.  From https://www.aviationmedicine.com/article/vision-and-faa-standards/ :

Contact Lens Authorization by the FAA

Pilots and controllers wearing glasses or contact lenses must meet all of the FAA vision standards. Those requiring near and distant correction may do this with either bifocals worn all the time or wearing contact lenses that correct for distant and having reading glasses available for near vision.

Some contact lens manufacturers and eye specialists are touting the advantages of Mono Vision Contact Lenses (MVCL) to eliminate the need for glasses without surgery. The MVCL technique uses one contact lens to focus at near while the lens in the other eye focuses at distant. The pilot suppresses the blurred image from the eye not in use depending on the distance of the viewed object. The FAA continues to prohibit the use of MVCL?s because each eye does not correct to 20/20 at distant and 20/40 at near separately. Because both eyes are not simultaneously focusing on an object at distant, the binocular component of depth perception may be reduced. Many other monocular cues to depth perception, such as shadows, relative size, motion parallax, contrast and texture gradient still exist when using MVCL. These monocular cues are susceptible to illusions in a visually compromised environment, such as reduced lighting or weather. The FAA will only allow monovision correction if induced surgically (see our article on refractive surgery) though it does require at least a six months adjustment period before returning to flying. After that time, the FAA will most likely require a medical flight test and subsequent Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA) to remove restrictions. Currently controllers are not authorized any method of monovision correction.

The FAA has approved the use of the newer multifocal contact lenses that correct at distant in the central portion while correcting for near vision at the periphery. This arrangement works fine when looking down at something to read, but blurs images in the periphery on lateral and upward gaze, particularly in low light conditions. Applicants must allow 1 month for adaptation before returning to aviation related duties, must be free from any vision defects, and must meet FAA vision standards.

10 hours ago, DAH4062 said:

This would help avoid the unlikely scenario in the (rather amusing) cartoon above. Instead of mucking about trying to find a contact lens, just pop the other one out, and put on your specs.

What would be even more amusing (in a terrified way) would be if they found both contact lenses, but were confused by who's were who's, and got them mixed up. 😂