Talk to me about glasses

Sit in your plane and measure the distance to your lap or yoke mounted readables. Then the distance to your panel, avionics, gauges. Tell the optometrist these distances, your angle of viewing, and why you need them that way.
 
Flew with a capt that had quite the routine for managing his THREE pairs of glasses AND contacts… would have been scared if not so impressed.
 
Right out of Star Trek, Kirk was allergic to them. , You can get eye drops that will aid with near distance vision for a few years. Vuity
 
I wear multi focal contacts for most activities, it’s a compromise. Distant vision is a bit fuzzy as is near vision. I put up with it for convenience.

For flying I have good progressives with transitions lenses. So much easier than juggling reading glasses and sunglasses.
 
I'm 44, flown since I was 22 (holy cow....half my life now!) Commercially since I was 24, I'm as blind as a bat and wear the expensive progressives, it's worth it. NEVER had a problem flying.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Sit in your plane and measure the distance to your lap or yoke mounted readables. Then the distance to your panel, avionics, gauges. Tell the optometrist these distances, your angle of viewing, and why you need them that way.
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One of the flying optometrists' groups used to give out worksheets and tape measures for this at Oshkosh. Frankly, it's kinda overkill unless you have overhead panels to look at.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Parachute handle? :p
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Overhead panel?
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Ron Wanttaja
 
After finally realizing my eyes were no longer correctable with glasses, my eye doctor laid it out for me: my eye were shot...

I had lens replacement surgery and it has been amazing. My vision is restored and I no longer struggle to see, especially at night. LASIC would not have fixed the cloudy and discolored lenses.

After the right eye was done, I went to work the next day and was genuinely ****ed off. I had no idea how bad my vision had become until i compared the right eye to the left. I could not believe I was flying in a super demanding (offshore helicopters) environment with such diminished eyesight. I was shocked at how I could now see colors so vividly, especially red.

Regardless of the cost, it was worth it. I had no recourse and my insurance paid about half of the cost of the lenses and most of the surgery. I should have done it 10-15 years sooner!

I wear reading glasses for anything within three feet and cockpit visibility is perfect.

All I can say is just do it.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am 47 and my eyes are going bad.
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Ha, that’s nothing. Just wait…

As mentioned above, try to find an optometrist who is a pilot. Next best is find a former military optometrist, because they will have probably dealt with aging pilot vision. At a minimum, tell your optometrist you are a pilot and want to read printed material (or tablet) X inches away, gauges and screens Y to Z inches away (note gauges on far right of your panel are probably more than twice as far as your six pack in front) and focus on infinity when looking straight ahead.

I too wore multi-focus contacts for years. I think they may be a good solution for you at this stage of your life. My optometrist gave me a choice of optimizing for distance or near, and I chose to optimize for distance and wear readers as needed. YMMV. My optometrist also told me to not wear them for flights over an hour, but I ignored that.

I reached the cataract stage of life a little early (late 50s) and for the first time in half a century didn’t need to wear corrective lenses after the surgery. Now I can read the clock every time I get up at night (see para 1).

Good luck.
 
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It took me some time to get used to progressives. These days, I don't even notice them. Make sure to get the most expensive one, they're worth it
 
I started using cheapo readers about 10 years ago for close work. For flying and driving I had stick-on reader lenses on my non prescription Ray-Bans. These worked quite well, except I had to take them off for landing... it might not matter to nosewheel pilots, but the biplanes I fly are completely blind straight ahead in a 3 point attitude, so flaring and landing is all about downward peripheral vision, right where the reading lenses were.

But then I started needing correction for distance vision, but my case is less common. I'm farsighted... which means I can use cheap (but weaker) readers for distance, and while they're not quite strong enough for optimum closeup, they're adequate in most cases. Bifocals or progressives might be nice, but what I have now only costs a few dollars, not hundreds.

Actually my prescription is different side to side, so I buy two pairs of the readers, different strengths, and swap the lenses. By using round lenses that can be swapped side to side I get two usable pairs.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I got progressives which were great when sitting at a desk. but they suck for flying. when I look down at the runway, the bottom part of the lens which is for close up is blurry and generally any situation when moving my head, things get a little warped.
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This is the proof of how different we all are.

I have been wearing progressives for flying for, must be 20 years now. The only time I don't wear them is when I'm wearing my contacts, which are multi-focal. They have been absolutely perfect for me.

Susan Northrup did a video discouraging the use of transition lenses. I can't imagine wearing anything else when flying. Even the nonprescription glasses I wear when I'm wearing contacts are photochromic. When I forget and wear my regular sunglasses, I end up repeatedly taking them off and putting them on as light conditions change.
 
eman1200 said:
is there any operation or help for seeing double? asking for a friend....
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does this friend have strabismus which is causing the diplopia or is it something else? I had this and saw double when I was much younger and yes surgery can fix it.
 
I'm in the group that has no problems with using progressive lenses when flying. It took me a month or two to get comfortable with them, though...that was about 15 years ago.

When I first got progressive lenses I used reader glasses when working on the computer (I hated having to turn my head when trying to focus on different parts of my monitor). Progressives when walking around were fine. Try and find an optician that provides high quality lenses...they are worth it!

eman1200 said:
is there any operation or help for seeing double? asking for a friend....
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Hey eman...have you, I mean, has your friend, been watching too much TV? I have attached an important public service video from Monty Python that might be helpful for you...err...your friend! :cool:

 
midlifeflyer said:
Susan Northrup did a video discouraging the use of transition lenses. I can't imagine wearing anything else when flying. Even the nonprescription glasses I wear when I'm wearing contacts are photochromic. When I forget and wear my regular sunglasses, I end up repeatedly taking them off and putting them on as light conditions change.
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Link?
 
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