Color Vision Standards & Testing (OCVT / MFT)

Color vision is one of the eye standards written into 14 CFR Part 67. The First-, Second-, and Third-Class eye standards (§§67.103, 67.203, and 67.303) each require the applicant to have "the ability to perceive those colors necessary for the safe performance of airman duties." In practice that means being able to distinguish the aviation signal colors — aviation red, aviation green, and white — which are used in light-gun signals from control towers, position and anti-collision lights, and color-coded instruments, charts, and airport lighting.

At the medical examination the Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) administers an approved screening test. Historically this was a set of pseudoisochromatic plates (such as the Ishihara or Dvorine books) or an instrument like the Farnsworth Lantern (FALANT) or an OPTEC vision tester. Effective January 1, 2025, the FAA changed the screening standard for new applicants: pilot color vision screening must now be performed in person on one of three approved computer-based tests — the Colour Assessment and Diagnosis (CAD) test, the Rabin Cone Contrast Test (RCCT), and the Waggoner Computerized Color Vision Test (CCVT). Each has an aviation-specific passing criterion; for the RCCT, for example, the applicant must reach a score of at least 75 on each of the red, green, and blue cone channels.

An applicant who passes the screening test at the AME's office is "color safe" and no limitation is applied. An applicant who does not pass is not disqualified, but the medical certificate is issued with a limitation. The current limitation code restricts the certificate to day visual flight rules — older certificates carried the equivalent wording "Not valid for night flying or by color signal control." The limitation reflects the tasks where color discrimination matters most: reading tower light-gun signals and interpreting colored lighting at night.

The applicant can remove that limitation through the FAA's alternate, operational pathway. The first step is the Operational Color Vision Test (OCVT), a practical test administered under a letter of authorization from the FAA. It typically pairs a signal-light (light-gun) test — the applicant identifies the red, green, and white signals from a control tower or a hand-held light gun — with a sectional chart reading task to confirm the applicant can interpret color-coded aeronautical information. For a Third-Class applicant, passing the OCVT is generally sufficient. For First- and Second-Class applicants, the FAA has historically also required a Medical Flight Test (MFT), an in-flight evaluation conducted by an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI) from the local Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) to confirm the applicant can safely perform color-dependent tasks in the operational environment.

When the applicant passes the operational testing, the FAA issues a Letter of Evidence (LOE). The LOE documents that the airman meets the color vision standard, removes the limitation, and is retained permanently, so the airman does not have to repeat color vision testing at future examinations. In earlier practice the same outcome was achieved through a Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA); the FAA continues to recognize valid SODAs and LOEs already issued. Because a color vision deficiency is a stable, non-progressive condition, this one-time demonstration settles the question for the airman's career.

EASA maintains its own color vision standard under Part-MED (Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011), at MED.B.075. Applicants are screened with Ishihara plates, and those who do not achieve a satisfactory plate result may be assessed as "colour safe" through further recognized testing (such as anomaloscopy or an approved lantern test). The concept is parallel to the FAA system — a plate failure is not automatically disqualifying — but the specific tests, pass criteria, and administrative process differ, so an applicant's status under one authority does not transfer automatically to the other.

For a flight school, color vision is a screening item that is best caught at the very start of a student's journey, not midway through it. A prospective student who is color deficient can still train and fly, but the day-VFR limitation and the pathway to remove it shape which ratings and career tracks are realistic. A cadet aiming at an airline First-Class medical needs to know early that removing the limitation may require the full OCVT-plus-MFT process and a Letter of Evidence — a sequence that involves the FSDO and the FAA and can take weeks to schedule. Discovering a color vision limitation only when a student is ready for night training or a commercial checkride wastes syllabus time and can derail a career plan that could have been redirected or resolved months earlier.

The limitation also has direct operational consequences during training. A student whose certificate is restricted to day VFR cannot legally be scheduled for night flights, night cross-countries, or the night-experience requirements that private and commercial certificates demand. Instructors and schedulers need that restriction visible on the student's record so night lessons are never booked against a student who is not authorized to fly them, and so the school can plan the OCVT/MFT pathway alongside the rest of the syllabus rather than as an afterthought.

Aviatize's Compliance & Auditing module stores each student's and instructor's medical certificate record together with any limitations it carries — including a color-vision day-VFR restriction — and keeps the resolution status (screening failed, OCVT scheduled, Letter of Evidence on file) as a tracked field rather than a note buried in a paper folder. When a Letter of Evidence is received, the record is updated once and the limitation is cleared across the platform.

Because the day-VFR restriction is machine-readable on the record, Aviatize's Smart Planning & Booking module can enforce it: night lessons and night cross-country bookings are flagged or blocked for a student still carrying the color-vision limitation, so the school never dispatches a night flight against an unauthorized student. The Digital Data & Records module keeps the underlying documentation — the medical certificate, the OCVT result, and the LOE — attached to the airman's file for audit and for future reference, so the one-time demonstration never has to be reconstructed from memory.