Contact Lenses

[Fly on the Wall]

I've been wearing glasses for a year and am considering getting contact lenses. My Optician has told me that he cannot get the "one day" ones because of my astigmatism, so it would have to be the ones that last a month. He did warn me, however, that many of his clients have difficulty with contact lenses in aircraft (dry air etc). Have you tried them and gone back to glasses or do you have no difficulty with them, I'd be interested to hear.

[GulfStreamV]

Fly on the Wall,

I have been wearing C/Lenses for about 15 years now. I used to have trouble with soft ones but now use very highly oxiginated hard lenses. And they are fine.

Just as an aside, whatever class of medical you have CAA(1,2,3)/JAA (1,2) If you require glasses on your med, then you need have the C/Lens part added onto your medical, and for that you need to have been a stable user of Lenses which I think they require at least 6 months use. + you always need to carry your spectacles if flying.

Good Luck

GV

[El Cid]

Not sure if you actually do need to be approved to wear contacts anymore as the doc who renews my class one showed me that the wording is such that one only has to wear corrective LENSES i.e. it does not specify.He may be wrong,but I would very much doubt it.Best to get it checked though.
EL Cid

[Whirlybird*]

I recently got an initial class 1 and yes, it just says "corrective lenses", so contact lenses are fine. I don't have any problem whatsoever with mine in dry air, but this is very much an individual thing I gather, so see how you get on. And you do need to carry a spare pair of spectacles.

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To fly is human, to hover, divine.

[Chilli Monster]

I wear the monthly disposables and have had no troubles at all flying GA in them. In commercial aircraft where the atmosphere is drier I have found that the 14 hours I'm supposed to be able to wear them for drops down to about 10 - keep some lens friendly eye drops handy.

As for the medical - back of mine has two stamps. Spectacles with spare pair available and Contact lenses with spare spectacles available. That is an ATCO's class 1 though issued last year. Pretty sure my PPL medical says the same.

[TooHotToFly]

I wear the contact lenses where you leave them in all month and have had no problem yet when flying. I haven't been higher than 5000 feet though.

[Flying_Steph]

I've been wearing soft contact lenses for years and spent hundreds of hours in airplanes (high altitude), but never had any real problem. My eyes were sometimes a bit dry, and I solved the problem with a liquid close to water (0,9% NaCl or salt) that costs around 2 dollars for one litre.

So, that's ok, but NEVER sleep with contact lenses in an airplane !!!!