Photochromic sunglasses
 

I am in need of corrective lenses, but am wondering if it's ok to use one of those photochromic sunglasses, where the prescribed lens darkens automatically just like sunglasses.
The only thing I know about sunglasses for flying to avoid polarised types.
Any info on photochromic glasses is appreciated!

Photochromic glasses don't generally work well unless they're directly in the sunlight.

When they're out of the direct sunlight, like when you're in your car or the cockpit, there's not enough UV to make them darken so you still get the glare.

I'd go for a good pair of standard sunglasses with a neutral grey lense, if you can get corrective ones all well and good.

Hi

i did the same thing but be careful!!! I was prescribed corrective glasses by my AME of a very low strength.

Not liking to be seen to be wearing glasses I had them tinted to look like a pale sunglass.

I went back with a pair of expensive glasses to redo the eye test and was told I had to do the whole test with the glasses including the colour test!
I could hardly get any numbers right and subsequently had to do the lantern test for colour having passed probably 20 colour tests since starting to fly.

I explained to him that I was looking at colours through a colour to no avail . Ie if you put on yellow glasses and look at blue you would see green :ugh:

Any pilot wearing sunglasses would effectively be colour blind no matter how good their colour vision.

so be cautious buying tinted glasses or go to boots and buy some cheap clear ones for the test

Hence my suggestion to use a neutral grey lense.

I would have two pair of glasses, a normal clear pair for general use and for use at night, which is when you'll probably need them most, and either a corrective pair of sunglasses or a clip on sunglasses

sun glasses
 

Hi Shumway76,

To my knowledge the advice has always been to avoid photochromic glasses because, while they darken quickly in bright sunlight, if the sunlight fades they lighten very much more slowly. However lenses are always developing so perhaps this advice might not still be current.

What I was using when I packed up flying in 2008 was lenses with a graduated tint. The lenses were darkest at the top and completely clear at the bottom.

When placing my order, I sat in my optician's shop and pointed out the angles of sight for the optician so he could make my spectacles so as to be clear from the cockpit coming downward (so that I could always see my instruments) and tinted above (where I looked through the windscreen). This worked very well.

BP.

The simple and IMHO best solution is to wear simple corrective glasses (mine are bifocals) plus clip on flip up sunglasses.
Clip ons are a great idea, they just clip on to your glasses and flip up out of the way when not needed. They avoid the expense and hassle of having special lenses made and you only need one to fit whichever pair of glasses you wear at the time.
You just need to select your frames to look good and work well with clip ons.

I have to say, in spite of all the advice about neutral tint sunglasses, that amber works well for me. This filters out the shorter (blue) wavelengths that scatter more and helps visibility in hazy conditions.

RT

But you will be colour blind when using them as will any pilot :ok:

Shumway, I have used photo chromatic sunglasses, but being of a certain age I find reading small print in low light difficult. Sunglasses are great for looking outside, but not for digital instruments. So now I have normal bi-focals and for looking out I merely pull my helmet visor down. The other problem with photo chromatic glasses is that they are slow to react, especially from dark to bright. That can cause problems when the sun goes in and you are still wearing dark glasses.

I see less blue but my visual system seems to compensate reasonably well.

I am not colour blind with amber glasses. The cut off is not very sharp and I see some blue, little violet, red/green are not affected at all.

Cloud/sky contrast is much enhanced and I can see traffic and ground features further away in haze.

Or why not take the experts advice??
https://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?c...90&pageid=9244

Google is your friend, yet again!

As it happens my glasses are brown/amber .... so we are both right!

I wear contacts for distance (and have for over 30 years) but due to age, now need readers for closeup work. Because I was always losing/breaking cheap readers, I bought a couple of decent pairs of plano over readers which are photochromic which I tend to wear all the time.

As has been said, photochromic are great for everyday use but useless for flying as walking to the aircraft they go very dark. Get inside or in the aircraft and they take an age to lighten up to read, and then are never dark enough to alleviate sun glare when flying.

So I bought a decent pair of Oakleys but got some bespoke lenses made in plano with bi-focal reader section, and then a gradual neutral grey tint that is pretty dark at the top and very light at the bottom where the reading prescription is. They are amazing and worth every penny and the grad tint means that the correct shading is almost always in the right place.

I have to carry a spare set of full prescription specs and just bought the cheapest frames and lenses I could, no tint. I'll probably never need to wear them, but rules is rules so they live in my headset case, ready and waiting.

My optician is very accommodating; well I have spent a small ransom with him over the years. Certainly worth just telling them what you need and see what they come up with, but make sure any frames are 'headset friendly' - thick bulky plastic frames tend to break the seal and with something like the Lightspeeds, cause all sorts of weird effects.