Sunglasses

Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

schrieb:
Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

Hi

IMHO Skylet sunglasses are the best. Take the 80%-ones
http://www.google.ch/search?hl=de&q=...le-Suche&meta=

Greetz
Klaus

wrote:
Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

Avoid polarized lenses. Some LCD instruments will look black through
them. I've read that some canopy/glasses combinations produce weird
artifacts, and they can block out a significant portion of reflected
light off of another aircraft's wings, just as they block glare
reflected off of cars and the road while driving. To me this takes away
a good visual cue that other traffic is in the area. On the plus side
they cut down glare and improve sky/cloud contrast. Amber tinting can
do a lot of this as well.
Wrap-around style shades block that annoying side light you get when
thermaling, where the sun comes in through the side and reflects off the
inside of the lens (I suspect a good antireflective coating would help
with this too). Watch out for cheap wrap-arounds though. The optics
can suck near the edges. I wear Rx Oakleys with a moderate neutral gray
tint. Love em.

Shawn

You didn't say if you needed prescription or not.
I'll tell you about my prescription glasses.

I've used 'Suntiger' http://www.suntiger.com/ for
one full season and have liked them.

I do have bifocals and I ordered on line and they came
in the mail just fine. They didn't have the 'high
performance' type of plastic for the lenses, thus for
my prescription, the lenses are 'coke bottle bottoms',
but they work well.

I was skeptical because they don't appear to have as
much tint as I had been using. My previous pairs of
prescription glasses were rather dark green or brown.
You couldn't see my eyes behind the glasses out in
bright sun. The Suntigers are different and they look
like there isn't much of the orange tint there, but
they do work! I don't squint with these as much as
I did with the 'darker' sunglasses.

Total cost was around US$180. I didn't buy the 'anti-glare'
or the 'scratch resistant' extras. Just the metal
frames and the prescription bifocals, with the visible
line across the lens.

When my prescription changes, I'll get another pair
of Suntigers.

And, I'm sure you can buy non-prescription Suntigers.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 16:00 14 March 2005, wrote:
Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming
season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What
are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

wrote:

Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

Buy the cheapest you can find. Sooner or later you *will* sit on them.
OTOH some pilots report that the Oakleys have the best success with the
line girls. Myself, I like my skylets for their intellectual look.

Stefan

mmm... IMHO you shouldn't buy the cheapest. You are improving your vision,
and protecting your eyes. If you buy cheap sunglasses you won't see very
well and your cornea will burn to death...
I use now Oakley, as a lot of pilots I know. Looks aside, they have great
optics.
The Randolph Engineering sunglasses are also great, classic looks and very
good optics. Not very expensive as well.
Ray Ban are also a good bet, in my experience.
Look for good UV filtering, good contrast, no color alteration, and feel
comfortable with them (good brightness filtering)

Jose M. Alvarez,
ASW-24 'BR'

"Stefan" escribió en el mensaje
...
wrote:

Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

Buy the cheapest you can find. Sooner or later you *will* sit on them.
OTOH some pilots report that the Oakleys have the best success with the
line girls. Myself, I like my skylets for their intellectual look.

Stefan

J.A.M. wrote:

mmm... IMHO you shouldn't buy the cheapest. You are improving your vision,

Ok, on a more serious level:

Look for good UV filtering,

UV filtering isn't an issue anymore. It was at the time when sunglasses
consisted of coated glass. Todays poly-whatever glasses filter out
essentially all UV, regardless of colour or price. You could even fly
without sunglasses, as even the canopy filters between 80 and 90 percent
of the UV.

good contrast,

This is an important point. Look for glasses that filter out the blue.
They will appear yellow, brown or red. This will give you contrast and
cuts the haze to some degree.

no color alteration,

Colour alteration isn't an issue. Your brain will adapt pretty fast to
whatever filter you put on your nose.

and feel comfortable with them (good brightness filtering)

Probably the most important point.

Stefan

I couldn't disagree more with whoever says to buy the cheapest
available. You only have one pair of eyes, and there's lots of bad rays
out there.

I tried a half dozen pilot-recommended brands and the winner was
Serengeti. Wonderful optics, doesn't scratch easily, great protection,
light and comfortable.

2NO

At 18:00 14 March 2005, wrote:
I couldn't disagree more with whoever says to buy the
cheapest
available. You only have one pair of eyes, and there's
lots of bad rays
out there.

I tried a half dozen pilot-recommended brands and the
winner was
Serengeti. Wonderful optics, doesn't scratch easily,
great protection,
light and comfortable.

2NO

I have used Suntigers since they hit the market in
the 80s. They were based on NASA research to reduce
UV that was causing cataracts, particularly by welding.
They based the orange color on the natural filters
in eagle's eyes. Eagles are in natural daylight all
the time, fly high, and do not get cataracts.

The orange is impossibly bright for the first two minutes,
but you can stay outdoors 12 hours and will not have
eye fatigue at the end of the day. There is an expected
amount of color shift. Greens pop out, yellows tend
to disappear, and blues tend to be black. You get
used to it quickly. The only problem is flowers; they
look weird!

You can have your own optometrist make your lenses
- even tri-focals (mine are) from C-39 plastic with
no hardener added. Send these lenses to Suntiger and
they will dye them for you and your optometrist can
put them back in your frames. I have done this with
4 pairs for myself and 4 pairs for my wife.

Soaring had a long article with graphs and charts back
in the 80s about these lenses. I have no financial
interest in the company.

wrote:
Want to purchase suitable sunglasses for the upcoming season. Search
of
old threads turned up info several years old. What are the
requirements
for a good pairr of good pilot's sunglasses.Tx.

I have worn Suntigers for several years. I never squint, and my eyes
never get tired. Because I wear trifocals and because I prefer to able
to choose the style I want, I purchase clear, uncoated lenses locally
from my opthamologist and send them to Suntiger for tinting. They
charge $40 for this service. I'm convinced I can see other aircraft
better wearing Suntigers. They're also good for night driving.