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Can you become a pilot if you wear glasses?

Can you become a pilot if you wear glasses?

Vliegles.nl Blog

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As a pilot, do you have to have perfect eyes or can you wear glasses too? The answer will surprise you.

As a pilot, you have to be able to see very well, of course. Because flying is so fast, a small dot on the horizon can turn into a jumbo jet very quickly. Or you might accidentally park your plane in the farmland next to the airport. Oops!

The good news

You can wear glasses if you want to become a pilot, up to a power of -6 to +5. Less than -6 is sometimes even possible. Your eyes may also be lasered. Even if you are colour blind, you can often fly, but only during the day. Small disclaimer: apart from that, your eyes must be okay. The final judgement is, as always, up to the medical examiner.

Flight medical examination

The medical examiner tests your eyes during a flight medical examination. Your eyesight will be tested at a distance of 30-50 cm, 1 metre and 6 metres. If you wear glasses, you will be tested with and without glasses. Your distance visual acuity must be at least 0.5 for each eye. The eyes together must have a minimum vision of 0.7.

No medical examination necessary for your trial lesson

You only need a flight medical examination if you are going to fly solo. So for a trial lesson you do not need a medical examination. We have even provided flying lessons for people who could not see at all. Which is also a very special sensation!

More information

More information about our flying lessons, parachuting, flight simulations and fear of flying courses:

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Do you want to know more about flying?

Then download our theory book "How an aeroplane flies" completely free of charge. This booklet describes in an accessible way the background of a first flying lesson. So that before or after your lesson you can read back what happened around you. You will read about, among other things:

  • How lift is created and thus how an aeroplane can fly
  • How to make a turn with an aeroplane
  • What the traffic rules on the ground and in the air are
  • And what all the buttons and gauges in the cockpit mean

You can also order the book as a real book on Bol.com or give it as a present with a flying lesson.

Free e-book

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About Eveline van den Boom

Author of this article is Eveline van den Boom. In 2006, she got her first flying lesson as a birthday present; a beautiful flight over Rotterdam. That tasted like more!

In 2010, she obtained her PPL pilot's licence in Lelystad. In 2011, a plane was purchased: an Aero AT-3. This aircraft is still flying in the Vliegles.nl fleet with callsign PH-EVB.

She wrote the theory books "Theory of Flying" and "Theory helicopter flying". You can order these with your flying lessons. Besides being a private pilot, Eveline also works as a Dutch real estate agent on the Costa del Sol.

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