Class IV Flight Physical

[IronHeart_26]

Can anyone tell me what a Class IV Flight Physical consists of. I'm having one Monday and Tuesday and just want to be prepared. I'm going to Ft. Rucker tomorrow (and totally screwing up the recruiter's super bowl time....7 hour drive :) ), so wish me luck y'all.

Thanks

[Haiw]

Don't really know jack **** about it, but good luck!

[crazyman]

took (and passed) one this summer at Ft. Lewis. it consists of the usual physical stuff, plus a LOT of measuring (wingspan, shoulder width, sitting height, leg length) also an extensive eye exam, including topographies, dilating your eyes, and so on. takes awhile, but its not all too bad. they'll also most likely want urine and blood from you. dont plan on driving anywhere for a day or two after. and keep the "ray charles" sunglasses they give you on for the rest of the day! i was a dumbass and took them off, my vision was pretty bad for 2-3 days after. the Class IV and the AFAST are the only "hurdles" on the way towards aviation, and dont worry much about either. just be honest an you'll do fine.

[Jack Mehoff]

Don't really know jack **** about it, but good luck!

No need to bring up my name

[Merik]

I was wondering something about that anyway, what is the vision requirements for the physical? I only ask becaue my uncle wears eye glasses constantly and yet he is still a NG guard pilot and just graduated Apache transition last year.

[crazyman]

20-50 correctable down to 20-20

[Seoulstriker]

I was wondering something about that anyway, what is the vision requirements for the physical? I only ask becaue my uncle wears eye glasses constantly and yet he is still a NG guard pilot and just graduated Apache transition last year.


the military is trying its best to get people in regardless of eyesight. when i was applying to the USNA, my eyesight was probably 20/100 right, and 20/50 left. i knew i couldn't be a navy pilot, and that's how the navy lost me.

medicine is still the way to go, though. ;)

[crazyman]

something i forgot to add...if your vision does not meet the requirements that I mentioned earlier (which mine did not at the time) you can go get LASIK surgery (laser eye stuff). after which you just see another army eye doc, they check em out again, and you're in. If you have any questions about LASIK, feel free to ask me. my eyes were 20-70 as of my Class IV, but i got a waiver til i got lasik, and im down to 20-10 now. only reason im not going off to flight school this summer is by choice, not because of vision.

[IronHeart_26]

I don't think I'll have any problems with the vision part. I have 20/15 in one eye and 20/10 in the other eye.

Are they going to do any tests on my heart or stress tests or anything like that?

[Merik]

something i forgot to add...if your vision does not meet the requirements that I mentioned earlier (which mine did not at the time) you can go get LASIK surgery (laser eye stuff). after which you just see another army eye doc, they check em out again, and you're in. If you have any questions about LASIK, feel free to ask me. my eyes were 20-70 as of my Class IV, but i got a waiver til i got lasik, and im down to 20-10 now. only reason im not going off to flight school this summer is by choice, not because of vision.

How much was it lol? ;)

[California Joe]

Can anyone tell me what a Class IV Flight Physical consists of. I'm having one Monday and Tuesday and just want to be prepared. I'm going to Ft. Rucker tomorrow (and totally screwing up the recruiter's super bowl time....7 hour drive :) ), so wish me luck y'all.

Thanks

Good luck with that.

[AFACadet]

Are they going to do any tests on my heart or stress tests or anything like that?

rgr on heart tests (EKG and electrocardiogram besides the normal stuff).

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'stress tests' though.

[California Joe]

Stress tests(in hospital and police academy) refer to treadmill work with increasing grade and speed while 8(?) maybe more point monitoring goes on.

[AFACadet]

ok, then no, they don't do that (I least I never did that, and I've never heard of any others doing that).

[crazyman]

theres' nothing crazy like that in a Class IV. its mostly the same sort of thing you'd expect from a regular physical. there is some stuff concerning range of motion...and if you had any broken bones or things of that type they'll wanna check em out. its no big deal though, ive broken a bunch of em and i got through it fine. as for lasik? lil over a grand per eye. but the way i go through glasses in the field, thats not all too bad

[Tane Angle]

With the lasik and other eye surgeries, careful with them. Flyers and paratroopers can't really get them, from what I understand. The scar tissue from the surgeries tears at high Gs. Good luck, Iron_Heart! :D

[usa320]

I was just about to say what tane said. Lasik surgeries might be okay for prop drivers or helo crew, but for paratroopers and jet jocks, it isnt allowed. A Navy study suggested that the high G forces exerted on fast jet pilots will rip the lacerations made by the surgery.

[Seoulstriker]

you guys are right about LASIK.

the military does perform RPK. that's where they use a laser to burn away some of the tissue around the cornea to correct your vision. the scar tissue isn't affected by high g's, but RPK is much more risky and painful, and a longer time in 'rehab'.

and RPK can't be done more than once, i don't think. well, i guess they could, but you wouldn't have any eye left. ;)

[crazyman]

as of 1 month ago, there are precisely two things that getting LASIK means you are a no-go for in the army. astronaut training, and HALO. you CAN still be a pilot, go through airborne school (which i am scheduled for, thank you very much) and anything else except for the above two. i dont know anything about jets (we fly helos in the army). but as for airborne, yes lasik patients can and do go.

[Seoulstriker]

pilots endure a maximum of 9Gs possible. so, it's better for pilots to have their glasses with them instead of lasik (RPK would work fine, though).

i'm sure the chute on a HALO wouldn't be more than 9Gs, because that would render the parachuter unconscious. so they wouldn't be able to have lasik either, but maybe RPK.

and astronauts... well... :)

[Seiyuuki]

What the hell??? You can be jet-jock even if you get LASER eye surgery???

It this true??? Can anyone confirm it???

[California Joe]

Like crazyman said, if she's headed to Rucker she wants to fly helos. I think its seriously cool. I have a friend doing just that.

Drew her naked once...... ;)

[Seoulstriker]

i can't confirm anything. when i was going over this deal with the USNA, i learned that RPK is in testing with pilots. they simply do not do LASIK, though.

i think there are a greater number of pilots with glasses than surgery.

and what is the point of having perfect vision without glasses? i'm sorry, but the days of dogfighting without RADAR are over. the pilot scanning the skies has been replaced.

:(

[Seoulstriker]

Like crazyman said, if she's headed to Rucker she wants to fly helos. I think its seriously cool. I have a friend doing just that.

Drew her naked once...... ;)


how many naked women have you drawn ala Titanic?

[Apogee]

A bunch of my buddies had to get a class IV for SFAS and CDQC, and the doc had to give them the finger if ya catch my drift. I dunno if they do that for helo jockies though.

Hope that helps.

-SCUBA

[California Joe]

20 or 30 something like that.

[Seoulstriker]

A bunch of my buddies had to get a class IV for SFAS and CDQC, and the doc had to give them the finger if ya catch my drift. I dunno if they do that for helo jockies though.

Hope that helps.

-SCUBA

ahhhh, the rectal probe. i have absolutely no idea why that is necessary. :|

[IronHeart_26]

Thanks for all y'alls help. I'm Rucker bound in a few hours. I'll let y'all know how things went.

Anal probes... http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10_1_17.gif ... I knew it! The government IS run by aliens. Now when my ears start ringing it really will be because the aliens are zeroing in on my location using that homing device they implanted! I'll let y'all know if I see Elvis or Jim Moresson while I'm on the ship... :lol:

People are strange when you're a stranger...faces look ugly when you're alone...women seem wicked when you're unwanted...streets are uneven when you're down...

When you're strange...faces come out of the rain...when you're strange...no one remembers your name...when you're strange...

[Herrmannek]

Can any of you explain what kind of mesure(ie 20/20) you use to describe eye efectivnes...Hmmm if I could be a pilot in US...I'm packing, and living in first plane :).


P.S. I have astigmatizm, something around 2.5-3.0 cylinders on both eyes...

[Merik]

I thought astigmatizm wasnt correctable.

[crazyman]

20-20 simply means that, when 20 feet away, you can see at a certain level of clarity. i'm 20-10, which means that if i stand 20 ft away from something....say a road sign, and somoene who is 20-20 stands 10 feet away, we will both see at the same level of clarity. its just a measure of how your eyes compare to what is expected of a normally formed eye (20-20)

and yea...the probe...kinda blocked that one from memory!

'fraid i dont know a damned hting about PRK or the limits on jet pilots. all i know is what the army says on the subject. actually, most docs ive seen since cant even tell i had lasik, the scar is that hard to see. anyone thinking about it should look into the procedure....dont hurt a bit, takes 6 er 7 minutes. im quite happy with the results, and i'll be headed off to airborne after i finish off FA-OBC. belive me, i did some checking when i got serious about lasik, no way was i gonna screw with that one.