Polarized Sun Glasses and PDAs

On Apr 5, 10:28*am, Greg Arnold wrote:
On 4/5/2010 1:27 AM, Jip wrote:



*wrote in message
...
Also, on a more general note:

Some canopy materials have bad interactions with polarized lenses.
When I was training in a Diamond DA-20 I made the mistake of wearing
polarized lenses once and was treated to a wonderful changing moire
pattern all over the canopy, as I turned my head - ugh!

So check your canopy as well as your PDA, before you drop a lot of
dough on fancy lenses!

--Noel

And last but not least, with polarized lenses reflections are suppressed.
That means that you easely miss a sun reflection in the cannopy of an other
glider.
Missing other traffic means an increased risk of collission.
No polarized glasses for me in the cokpit!!

It is possible that you might miss a sun reflection on a glider.
However, polarized gliders make the sky much darker, so in general they
make other gliders stand out. *They also help with the visibility of
distant clouds.

I wear a blue blocking polarized lens. The combination of blue
blocking and polarizing significantly darkens large parts of the sky
makes white gliders stand out and increases cloud contrast greatly,
making wisps and haze domes visible as well.

The downside is color shifts that may affect things like field choices
in landouts in some situations, but you get used to this quickly.
Moire patterns from stress in canopy can be a problem sometimes but
with all the Meccaplex canopies I've flown with I have never seen a
problem with this. One particular side window in my Tundra is another
issue. Some powered aircraft windows with complex coumpount curvatures
may be worse than glider canopies.

Having a really good pair of sunglasses also cuts down on eye stain
and makes you more likely to see other aircraft. The old chestnut
about speculative reflection and it's importance in detecting other
aircraft keeps coming up, the scientific report often cited for this
is far from convincing.

Darryl