Sunglasses/Shades...what are favourites and why?

[TALUFTEN]

There are so many manufacturers of sunglasses and even more pairs of shades from which to. .choose. From the classic Ray-Ban G-15 to Maui-Jim, Oakley, and Sundog etc etc. What are your. .favourites and why? I realize that it is really a personal preference, but , since there is really too. .great a selection for any one person to narrow it down on one's own I ask for your opinions in. .hopes of selecting that perfect pair of sunglasses....for the time being. . .(Moderators: I wasn't certain into which forum I should add this topic so feel free to move it.)

[Jetgate]

Taluften, pasted below is a thread which I'd saved from PPRuNe many moons ago. Hoping one day, when I have some spare cash, to use this info....... .. .Shades. .. .Post 1. hey dudes... I gotta pair of Ray Ban Chromax shades that Ive been wearing for about 3 years now. After all this time at flightschool and working out in the bush they are bent, chipped and a bit double jointed, but still provide excellent viewing.. .Smoke, haze layers I cant spot easily through scratched cockpit windows in early morning light conditions are much much clearer and easily seen with them on.. .Also great for the glare out here inna bush.. .That said...apparently some sort of comparitive test was done and our beloved Ray Bans are not as sh*t hot as we would like to believe...'tis said they offer of the lowest levels of UV protection to be found... gasp, could this be true !?!. .I'm now looking for some snazzy Oakley's , they are , methinks, high quality, have good optics, offer good protection ballisticly and UV wise, and just as importante...a pair of Oakley X-Metals with Gold IRidium lenses are too cool, man. Never mind the mutt, were talking the lion's nuts, bru !! . .. .Post 2. Ray Bans are great but the green lens ones make the FMC a little difficult to read! Oakley Juliets are my personal choice..and often forget they are on until leaving my seat and realise it is getting dark and raining!. .. .Post 3. There are several reasons to wear sunglasses. It is generally accepted that glare is harmful to the eye and that protection from glare is therefore therapeutic, even though studies show that only 22% of the population reacts adversely to glare. For these people the pupils are nearly pinpoints under such exposure. Diminished retinal luminescence cause measurable visual decrements and sunglasses will improve this visual acuity problem by counteracting the amount of available light. Conversely another 11% are at the opposite end of the sensitivity spectrum, these people actually have improved acuity under high glare conditions and seem to have no need for sunglasses. . .. .It is not necessary to wear lenses inside the aircraft to protect a pilot from the injurious part of the UV spectrum, because canopy or cockpit windows will also block UV-B. Acrylics, however, will not block UV effects. (Ultra light or open-cockpit flyers will need sunnies.) UV-C is absorbed by the atmospheric ozone and is not supposed to reach the earth. . .Sunglasses are therefore essential for most pilots in order to cope with glare. The most important consideration for sunglasses is that they reduce glare without affecting vision. Lenses should not be too dark and the standards given for pilots is that they transmit at least 15 per cent of incident light. The tint must be "Neutral density" (ND) which means that it doesn't affect colour perception. The recommended tint for aviation sunglasses is therefore ND15. (This is the US military specification standard for aviators sunglasses and tinted visors, and may have its scientific origins in a 'best guess scenario' more than fifty years ago.) Only sunglasses that conform to the Australian standards should be worn . Those marked "specific purpose sunglasses" are recommended. . .Pilots who wear prescription sunglasses may either wear clip-on lenses or they can get their prescription sunglasses made with ND15 lenses. Clip-ons have the advantage of being easy to remove when there is a quick change from light to dark conditions. . .If you chose to have your prescription lens made with a tint then it is essential to have another pair of untinted lenses for night and low glare flying. Pilots who wear look-overs are advised to use bifocals instead and then wear clip-ons. . .There are two main materials, crown glass and a plastic known as CR39. A very tough poly carbonate lens material is also available. All three lens materials are acceptable. CR39 and polycarbonate have these advantages :. .- highly impact resistant. .- light weight. .- low thermal conductivity and thus less liable to fogging. . .CR39 is more vulnerable to surface damage than glass and CR39 lenses must be carefully protected from scratching. CR39 can be obtained with an abrasion-resistant coating to reduce its susceptibility to surface damage. . .. .Polaroid lenses should be left in your boat. (Everybody has one right ) Their chief attribute is that quality Polaroid lenses will completely eliminate glare coming from a flat surface that is of an angle of approximately 53%. A pilot wearing Polaroid lenses sees the world as constantly changing according to his (or her) angle of bank, as the angle of the glare is altered. Looking through a polarises window can result in no image at all! Infrared rays (as in a heated cockpit) are not known to be a eye hazard. . .. .Lens colors are seen in different ways:. .Green or grey are said to give the least color distortion, and are available in combination.. .Yellow has the capability of filtering reflected short-wave blue which is found in air contaminants such as fog, haze, smoke or smog. In certain conditions therefore yellow "blue blockers" can improve visual acuity, but not because they protect from glare. Yellow lenses that cut out more than 30% of ambient light can affect color perception and military pilots complain that depth perception is altered.. .Brown, if it is not too dark, will enhance contrast as well as doing a modicum of blue-blocking.. .Rose also increases contrast and blue-blocking offering a niche in car use. . .. .Aviators' sunglasses should:. .- be glass or polycarbonate. .- transmit not less than 25% of available light. .- not distort colors, distances or shapes. .- nullify the blurring effect of short-wave reflected blue. .- have their adverse effect on visual acuity well understood and. .- not be worn under conditions of diminished light. . .sources:. .-CAA (Australia) Aviation Safety Digest (ASD) 150 (1991). .-ASD 136 (Autumn 1998). .-ASD 133. .-CASA's Flight Safety Australia (Sept. 1997) . .Copies of all of these articles are available for free if you contact (Australia'a CASA or BASI)

[Luca_brasi]

Search in the Tech Log forum for Sunglasses. Theres at least one thread there that i know of that is very helpful. .. .Gives the pros, cons, personal beliefs and experiences of many different types. .. .for the record ive got ray ban gold wraps with prescription lenses fitted. My friends got them for me for my 18th bday. I think they are the ones that ray ban advertised as being the ones from Pearl Harbour

[somewhatconcerned]

I found Oakley eye jackets really good. I can't give you any scientific data as to why but they seemed to significantly improve vis in hazy conditions, particularly when the sun is low in the sky. They are very expensive though even compared to Ray Bans which I ended up buying when I left the Oakleys in a pub one day.

[Matthewjharvey]

Serengeti's are excellent, many of the pilots I flew with in the states use them including me, however I'm not sure if they are available back here in blighty.

[TALUFTEN]

Thanks for the replies all. Jetgate thanx for the awesome paste. Visual, it's too bad Maui's are polarized because they would have been my choice. Well, the search continues....

[criticalmass]

Zeiss Dark Umbral

[overstress]

Any cheap £10 pair from outdoor equip't shops. .. .You'll sit on your oakleys one day and wish you'd only spent £10. .. .With apologies to £6

[Dimitri]

I own a pair of Oakley C Wire's with polorized Gold Iridium. I have no idea whether they are ideal or anything, when you look through them clouds etc look incredibly different (i.e you can suddenly see all the layers, very strange) I found them very comfortable except for when a friend of mine took me up in the RAF's little grobs or whatever and wearing those tight helmets over my sunglasses hurt like hell.

[TwinNDB]

Serengeti's by far the best i've ever had. No problems going from instruments to outside etc etc and they are great for seeing different cloud layers.. .. .Had mine for 3yrs now and been dropped etc but are still as good as the day i bought them.. .. .Don't look at anything else.

[Sick Squid]

Have I talked to you about this Overstress?!? If so you didn't come out of the PPRuNe closet...! One of my pet subjects, this.... .. .Yep, had almost all of 'em over the last 14 years of flying. My favourites were Ray Ban Chromax 2's. Made the World a much happier place by really making red RED and green GREEN!. .. .Prior to that the usual company issue Ray Ban greens (didn't like them) and a variety of Aviator style Ray Bans, culminating in the Diamond finish aviators as worn by cult leaders the World over... just think David Koresh at Waco. . .. .Also in there, Oakley wraparounds, Randolphs, and finally, two pairs of the very nice retro Ray Bans from the inflight duty free..... .. .Notice a trend? What do you think happened to all of the above? I either lost them, had them stolen, or sat on them. So now, I wear to work a fine pair of blue mirrored shades courtesy of Next at £10. They're my second pair... I sat on the first ones.. .. .On a serious note, I think the best shades for flying are definitely the larger ones, that cover your entire eye and then some, ie the David Koresh/Sung Myung Moon large aviator styles. OK, you get absolutely zero street cred, but most importantly, they don't allow light to creep in over the top of the lens, which all the smaller ones do... easily corrected by a baseball cap however. Colour-wise I found the Chromax 2's picked out the VASI's better, though were probably lacking in other areas.. .. .So for work, I won't spend more than a tenner these days, and save the cool shades for other activities!. .. .£6. . . . <small>[ 23 March 2002, 20:51: Message edited by: Sick Squid ]</small>

[overstress]

Ah, £6, a person after my own. Have you noticed that 'bloc' glasses are available for £10 in some shops and the identical model in other shops cost £20?. .. .The yellow lensed ones are the best although one hs to peer over the top of them to determine if the ECAM has a blue line or not...

[compressor stall]

Got a few sets of Safety issue wrap around sunnies (which actually look pretty good, I have had 4 people ask me where they can buy them) from a mine where I do charters to occasionally.. .. .Safety sunnies are nice when flying into airstrips with flocks of birds all around, and to boot they are almost impossible to scratch, were free and have thin arms which fit under my headset

[Hagbard the Amateur]

I love my Ray Ban Predator gold glass wraparounds. They have served me well in alpine sun & snow as well as on the African Atlantic.

[Busta]

Randolph Engineering.. .. .Nothing matters very much,most things don't matter at all.

[FL245]

its got to be Serengeti... without a doubt.

[Send Clowns]

Cheap ones. According to recent studies the cheapest have the same UV protection as the most expensive, and I don't panic if I sit on them :D

In fact, rereading the posts here, I think I have the same shades as £6 :cool:

[N-1JAA]

I'd strongly warn people off Oakley Eye Jackets if you're flying anywhere hot and humid. I got a pair for when i was flying out in Florida last year and the damn things kept steaming up, acting like mini greenhouses aroung my eyes!! This was to the extent that i never wore them for landings because of the "virtual" fog i kept seeing as we descended.

Interestingly enough Oakley are currently showing off Private Pilot's testing of sunglasses (something to do with them coming top I suspect!:)) http://oakley.com/product/shootout/

[Danza]

Anyone tried "Revo" sunglasses? Endorsed by the Red Arrows and all that, but are they any good?:confused: