skyfish wrote:
I want to get current on my VFR Single Engine Land license but my eyes
are not what they used to be. The strength I need for good far vision
makes it so I can't read charts in the cockpit without taking them off.

I figured I would try a progressive lens because I thought it would
eliminate the extra task of taking my glasses off to look at a chart
(less work load is good right?), but I'm concerned about a few things:

1) the distortion of my peripheral vision for the top part of the lens,
let alone the bottom part.

2) the narrowness of the "corridor" that forces me to turn my head for
every single thing I want to look at... flight instruments and radios
are far enough apart to require a head turn.

3) can't view the entire width of a 81/2 piece of paper. I can only get
good focus on about 1/3 of it. The beginning and ends of the sentence
will be out of focus.

4) how much of my attention will be on getting my glasses to work vs.
looking out the window or at my instruments.

Any thoughts, ideas or personal experience you would care to relate
would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I got my progressive lens three years ago. Yes, they are a pain for all
of the reasons you mention, but you get used to them and they aren't a
big limitation for flying. I find them more annoying for general
reading where you are constantly scanning lines in a book or magazine.
Keep in mind that your peripheral vision is typically not very high
acuity anyway and is mostly motion sensitive. I haven't found the
distortion in the periphery to be a big handicap in that regard. I can
still pick up motion in the periphery and then turn to view it.

I do find reading approach charts at night to be more difficult with
these glasses, but then I can still read up close reasonably well
without my glasses so I usually just look over or under them to read the
find details.

It took me several weeks to adapt to the progressives and I still don't
like them much, but I think they are better than the alternatives.


Matt