Oscar’s Observations

June, 2009

At the Lake Casitas Float Fly reported in last month’s Prop Talk, old friend T.J. Moran was helping me trim out my J-3 Kitten. T.J. belongs to both the Ventura Comets and the Santa Barbara club, which also puts on several float flies each year at Lake Cachuma (gezundheit!) He and his sidekick, Scot Loepkey, helped me get my Bud Nosen quarter scale Cub flying at Lake Cachuma about 20 years ago, when I got back into RC float flying big time. T,J. is one of these kind, helpful, giving souls, much like our own Dale Yaney, who brings practically his entire workshop to the events, will give you the shirt off his back, runs the retrieval boats, and so on.

During one of our flights, T.J. was coaching me, when he said "with your eyesight, Oscar, you should keep the plane much closer" or words to that effect. I had noticed that I was doing most of my reading with my stronger left eye. Also, I had been landing off the runway more often lately. So I made an appointment to see my Ophthalmologist, whom I had last seen about 2 years ago. (He also flies RC with his son)

While waiting for my June appointment, I noticed that the right eye was quickly getting worse, and then a large dark area started creeping into my field of vision! I was able to get an earlier appointment, and it turned out that I had a detached retina. A specialist soon operated to reattach my retina, and the prognosis is good for restoration of most of my vision. Meanwhile, I am faced with only a blur in my right eye, an eye patch, and special eye drops four times a day.

The retina reattachment procedure involves placing a gas bubble into the eyeball to hold the retina in place while it heals, plus a strap around the eyeball to help hold its shape. I am wearing a Medic-Alert type of wrist band which warns about low atmospheric pressure, which could result in blindness. For the two months or so that it takes for the gas to dissipate, I cannot go up in a plane or drive over a hill more than 1000 ft. high. I naturally have lost my depth perception. As you might imagine, all this has had a large effect on my lifestyle.

I contacted the DMV, who says that driving with one eye temporarily out of service is legal. But it ain’t the same, and I have become even more cautious than when I am driving our 36 ft., eleven ton motor home. I have not even thought about flying RC, but I probably will try it with a coach. Meanwhile, I have the simulator. Our summer travel plans are on total hold, until we see how things turn out. I certainly won’t drive the RV until my vision is restored, and an important family event in the Seattle area in late June will probably be missed. Forget about any float flies or fun flies.

This all has been an unexpected splash of cold water in my face, since RV travel, reading, writing, watching movies and TV, model building and flying – almost every activity I enjoy – all depend on good eyesight. I am not telling you all this to enlist your sympathy. Rather, I am trying to warn you. Macular degeneration is common in us senior citizens. The shrinking macular matter sometimes pulls the retina out of position. The retina, which receives images and sends them to the optic nerve, can tear and fluid can get behind it, and then you can’t see squat.

If I had gotten in to see the doctor a month earlier, he might have been able to repair the initial damage with a laser, a simple office procedure without surgery. I was supposed to see him yearly, since I had my lens replacements for cataracts, but I had skipped a year. Now I will see him twice a year! So, please, guys, have regular eye exams, and if things start to look fuzzy or different, scream for an immediate examination! I could have gone to Urgent Care, or the Emergency room, which would have gotten me an instant examination, but I did not realize how serious things were getting. So I waited for my appointment. Never Again! Now the Sword of Damocles is hanging over my head, in the form of that still good left eye, and I will do whatever I can to preserve it.