What I found especially difficult was the transition at night from the panel scan to a dimly lit overhead panel. Variefocals did not work for me for this. Bear in mind as well that in commercial flying there are normally two in the cockpit so the other chap's lighting likes have to be born in mind.
So I opted for either bifocals or trifocals. On balance, for flying, I prefer the bifocals. I use photogrey lenses for either. These glasses are considerably more expensive than many others and some opticians do not want to know about them.
Nancy Sinatra's walking footwear high street company made mine up. Of course, you are required to have two pairs. One for wearing, the other close to hand. But, I do not really think that the second pair needs to be anything other than an emergency spare if reasons of economy prevail.
Hope that this helps a little. I think you can expect to pay something like £250 for a pair of well framed spectacles such as these.
