glasses for use in an emergency

RyanB

RyanB

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So, not really the average medical forum post, but just thought I’d do some thinking out loud here.

I started wearing glasses in the second grade after the ‘kid can’t read the chalkboard’ type of scenario and then wore them for the next 5-6 years before I transitioned to wearing contacts. Now, I alternate between the two, but feel like I can see the best with the contacts so I prefer to wear them when I fly. A relative told me that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just keep my glasses in my flight bag in case something goes awry with the contacts mid-flight. In my 6 years of flying, I’ve yet to have anything happen to them that required me to take them out but I was thinking, that’s really not a bad idea. My prescription is a -7.50 R eye and -7.00 L eye, so if something occurred mid-flight that required the contact(s) to be removed I’d be up chits creek. Anyone bring a set of glasses with them for use in an emergency?

Side note - my medical says ‘Must wear corrective lenses’ (DUH!) :)
 
While I'm not as blind as you are ;) I have a similar issue. I can almost pass the eye exam without anything at all, my prescription is -1.25. Having said that, I don't wear my contacts if I go out to the airport to work and don't plan to fly so that I can read part numbers and things close up. (I have to use readers in low light with my contacts in) I keep a pair of prescription sunglasses in the plane for those times when we stop working and we just want to go fly. So to answer your question, yes, its a good idea. You never know when you are going to tear a contact by rubbing your eye or get something in your eye while you're flying.
 
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Cooter said:
I always have a backup pair in my bag. It’s required for work and a good idea overall, being able to see is kind of a big deal.
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Yeah it kind of is.

Not sure why this possibility never crossed my mind until lately. One of those things where you put them in each morning and forget they’re in there - that is until the moment when it feels your eyeballs are being stabbed by a knife from a tear in the lens or an eyelash works it’s way into the eye *ouch* .
 
I have a backup pair somewhere in the house, one of these days i will remember to put them in the flight bag and remember to take the flight bag to the plane.
however, i can see just fine without them. about -1.25 or less
 
Ryanb said:
Yeah it kind of is.

Not sure why this possibility never crossed my mind until lately. One of those things where you put them in each morning and forget they’re in there - that is until the moment when it feels your eyeballs are being stabbed by a knife from a tear in the lens or an eyelash works it’s way into the eye *ouch* .
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right, you can pop on Zenni optical and buy a basic pair for $30 and call it good. I tend to keep an extra pair in the car too.
 
Ryanb said:
I have a pair of prescription glasses already.
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Doesn't mean you can't buy some cheap spares on Zenni and leave them in the plane.

This year's medical was the first time I couldn't guess my way through the 'near' section of the test. So I have dollar store readers in the car and my flight bag to keep the jack booted eyeglass police at bay.
 
Mine aren't that bad and I carry a spare set of glasses in my flight bag. I recently went back to cable temples, so it's unlikely I'll lose my glasses, but still...
 
I tried contacts for a while, like Tim I'm -1.25 but can pass the 20/40 on certain days, but one day I was driving with my contacts in, I blinked, one folded up on me, and that was the last time I wore them.
 
I had lens replacement surgery four years ago and have synthetic lenses now.

I should have done it ten years earlier!

I need reading glasses for close up, but the lenses are good for the distance to the instrument panel and beyond!
 
My wife's vision was bad enough when she got her first medical that the doctor says, "We normally recommend pilots with bad vision bring a spare set of glasses with them. In your case, you better take two sets."

After LASIK she has no restriction on her medical anymore. She also now understands the point of the alarm clock I have that projects the time on the ceiling. She could never see it before.

Of course with age, I now have the "must wear lenses" and the "must possess lenses for near vision" and the must use amplification.

I'll probably lose the "must wear" restriction in a few years as cataract surgery is likely on the horizon.
 
I actually lost my spectacles at Oshkosh. Never happened to me before, but there I was. Had I not packed a spare pair (first time ever) I'd not have been able to fly home. I fly multiway trips I carry a spare pair of glasses from now on.
 
I always leave a pair or two of throwaways on the airplane in case of ramp check.
 
I wear contacts and have terrible uncorrected vision, so I keep a spare pair of glasses in my bag. In the hard case with the glasses is also a spare set of contacts. Not that I'd try popping in fresh contacts in the air, but it's nice to be able to pop in a new contact after I land wearing the glasses.
 
-6/-5.75 contact wearer and always carry glasses in the plane.
 
+1.

I wear glasses and can wear contacts. I tried contacts in the plane but couldn't read fine print or symbols w/o readers. I prefer glasses for the plane because they are progressive bifocals. Sorry, I diverged.

So one day at my folks cabin I was swimming with my daughter. I had my eyeglasses on and didn't think I would be diving under. I totally forgot about them and dove in. About 6ft of water. Glasses came off. Well that sucks. Then it dawns on me that I flew up in the plane...holy ^%%$# moment. My daughter is too short to help me find them but she throws me her swim googles (pink LOL!). I look around to make sure I can get back to this spot. Probably took about 5 minutes but seemed like an hour. Finally found them. It wasn't easy because I had googles but no lens correction.

Spare glasses went into the plane shortly after that event. So it may not even be a event while up in the air but you'll still need them to fly. I would think this would be more likely for someone flying and camping and they are busted/lost. Maybe once in a great while a lens might pop out from a tight headset or something.

Get new glasses about every 3-5 yrs and just use the old pair. Vision doesn't change that much (usually).
 
I have odd vision that is mis-matched. I’m near sighted in my right eye to the point I can see about 18” in clear focus but slightly far sighted in my left. I’ve worn glasses since I was 3 (optometrist had an eye chart with all E but turned different ways. I had to tell him what direction the legs of the table pointed.) I’ve never had contacts.

I always carry a spare pair of glasses with me in my flight bag. A few years ago, during a flight review I asked the instructor if he’d be comfortable if I tried a pattered and landing while I did not wear my glasses. I wanted to know if I could do it-just in case. It turned out to be no problem at all. But I still carry a spare pair.
 
Had my glasses snap at the bridge driving the family to Gulf Shores for Spring Break. Luckily had Rx sunglasses but that didn’t work when the Sun went down.

I was a real grumpy SOB that night. My mother in law mentioned it the other day (and this happened 4-years ago). Grateful for my sight and LensCrafters for getting me glasses within a day!!!
 
For ~25 years I never had a problem with soft contacts and for the first few years of flying, the idea of backup glasses never crossed my mind.

The last few years I wore contacts, I had switched to hard lenses, and a handful of times a year something would happen, like an eyelash or grain of sand would get in there and feel like a boulder, or something would happen and the contact would slide out of place. Since it's hard to maneuver a hard lens back into position without taking it out and putting it back in, and it's also difficult to get a hard lens out when it's not sitting in the right spot, I carried a couple of those little "cheater" silicone suction cups to make sure I could remove it if necessary. I also quickly realized that I wanted a pair of backup glasses with me, too.

Now I wear glasses all the time. I've never had a catastrophic incident with my specs, but I've had sunglasses get knocked off my face and damaged/destroyed, so the next time I get a new pair of specs, this pair will probably start traveling with me as my "emergency" pair, too.
 
I love wearing my contacts. But in the plane I find that they can get a little dry. As they dry I start to lose some acuity. She just pattern work no biggie. But longer flights higher I dry out quicker. Hence I fly with prescription sunglasses and have my reg ones as back up.
 
benyflyguy said:
I love wearing my contacts. But in the plane I find that they can get a little dry. As they dry I start to lose some acuity. She just pattern work no biggie. But longer flights higher I dry out quicker. Hence I fly with prescription sunglasses and have my reg ones as back up.
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I have the same problem, but my solution is to carry some BioTrue with me wherever I go. Rewetting drops work too, but being a smaller bottle, can be hard to fish out of the bag.

Definitely carry specs with me too though, just in case.
 
spares everywhere for me.

Once while working offshore, I lost my glasses. I eventually found em but never again would I ever be in that scary situation.
 
LASIK.

Best "treat" I ever gave myself. I was 20/700 (or worse)...now I'm 20/30...and it's been almost 10 years since I had it done.

Had an extremely high fever when I was 6. Spend 3 days packed in ice at a kid's hospital in St. Louis. They never did determine the cause (mid-60s). But it cooked my eyes. 9 siblings, none of the rest had to wear glasses until middle age, I started wearing them in 5th grade.
 
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