Brown lenses, not too dark. They are very good for filtering out blue light and increasing contrast. No need to spend a fortune on sunglasses, cheaper ones work just as well.

I agree Gomer - just got a free perscription pair with my new perscription glasses - Best I've ever owned ! I wouldn't consider expensive glasses again.

Non-polarised Sunglasses -139
 

Can anyone recommend a good pair of sunglasses for use in the 139?

Silhouettes without a peer....
No ear pain from frames :ok:

Any Serengeti frames with their Drivers Gradient lenses are highly recommended.

Brilliant in all light conditions, even flat 'grey/white' light, and work fine with glass cockpits.

I'll give the same answer as I did some time ago: Serengetti Drivers, "Velocity" frames because of the wraparound with the "gradient" lens. These are without a doubt the best glasses I've ever used.

PM

I always go for graded lenses, you'll see why once you try.

Zeiss Dark Umbral. Optical glass, therefore soft. Use a good quality case. Don't drop them.

Polarized sunnies used to be illegal
 

When I got my Student Pilots License in New Zealand in 1966, my instructor was emphatic on the subject: Polarized Lenses were illegal in aviation, he said.

He pointed out that at a critical angle to the sun, the wings of another aircraft become completely invisible if you are wearing polarized glasses.

We went out to the airfield and he demonstrated it by rotating my glasses while watching a light aircraft on approach. At a certain angle, the aircraft vanished. That convinced me...

My personal opinion is, that you need sunglasses in the "wrap around" style, i.e. that they cover your eyes also from the side. Never use polarized, lenses which changing gradient or adjust their brightness.

I always prefered Oakleys, because they where the first to have optical abberations under control in curved lenses (especially important with corrected lenses), but Serengeti and others also seem to have caught up.

Always be aware for what you are using your lenses, and check the optical properties of your favorite: dark black for strong sun (tropics, deserts), yellow for haze or light sun. Oakleys always come with an extensive test protocol, so you can check how many percent of the light gets filtered. Don't forget to check the blue part of the sun light (that is the frequencies just above 400 micro). These tints are brownish.

Dani

Same as Piltdown Man
 

Ten years with the Seringetti drivers and haven't had to try anything else. Just fantastic shades with the graded lenses. Even in dark cloud, the obvious grades of protection are obvious, as the cloud thins and then into bright daylight. May as well be a non-event.

Did use the Revo blue shades, but that just p!ssed off the other driver looking at themselves in blue!

halas

We were told that "G15" was the best shade/ strength

Under certain lighting polarized will give an "oily film" appearance to windows and displays.

If using EFIS at certian angles some of the display may appear to momentarily blank.

Something that has a snug fit across the top and around the sides will help reduce momentary dazzel as you manoeuvre.

Oh and make sure they look cool....!

I've owned/used RayBan green lens exclusively. I prefer a narrow lens so I can see under the glasses into the cockpit when transitioning from outside to instruments (suits the flying I'm doing). I had Aviators but the teardrop shape didn't suit me. I have tried the Serengetti graduated lens and they were very good, but I wasn't a fan of the amber. Found Oakley were too dark - again when transitting from outside to inside the cockpit on a very sunny day

I've found the V: ONE sunglasses very good. The lenses are just the right tint and work really well on a hazy day. The arms fit well under headsets so not increasing the noise.

Whatever you get, make sure they fit comfortably under your headset. Oakleys are not usually that good in this respect, in my experience.
Personally, Serengeti titanium Velocity with the brown drivers' gradient lenses are the best I've ever had and I would find it hard to use anything else now.

If you don't have ready access to an EFIS (e.g at the opticians where you are buying the sunglasses) and want to see the effect slamer is talking about, just ask to have a quick look at their TFT computer screen.

Randolph Engineering "AVIATORS" work very well for me (grey lens)

I have a pair of Oakley Fives, great great lenses (dark gray tint), but they are SO uncomfortable over the nose bridge after an hour or so...which I couldnt pick up when I was trying them on before buying:bored: Make sure you buy ones that fit really comfortably!

Sunnies
 

Serengetis are on sale this month at a well known on-line flight store @ £100 + £5.99 delivery (UK).

Just Wear What U.s. Military Pilots Wear
 

If they are good enough to go Mach II they are good enough for me. I buy them at the below link. It appears to be something of a factory outlet. The prices are low, low.

www.AOEyewearOnline.com

Hi,

you can take a look at
Caruso Freeland Sonnenschutz Produkte
Switzerland, lenses to prtocr from UV and blue light, protect from strylight, changeable glases ....

Greetings Flying Bull

Wide range of eyewear
 

A wide range of Pilot eyewear at (deleted by Mods)

:8

Recommend Randolph Grey Lens sunglasses- perfect all-rounders. Or, if you don't like the style- try a green tinted lens from Ray ban- non polarised of course.:cool:

Please feel free to Advertise your company and sales via our Advertise button at the top of every page :ok:

Senior Pilot

I am also a fan of Serengeti Drivers and have used them for years after trying most everything else. However, I have noted one possible issue. When doing recurrent training at Bell in B407's equipped with night vision compatible instruments, the readability of the instruments is impaired by the the sunglasses apparently due to polarization of the Serengeti lenses. Not a factor in my routine flying, but may be for some.

You must have the 'Drivers Polarized' lenses. I suggest that you change these to 'Drivers Gradient' (which are not polarised).

Didnt know that this choice existed. My current Drivers do have gradient type lenses, but apparently they are polarized as well. So, apparently, choosing Drivers Gradient eliminates the polarization? :confused:

It's becoming hard to find non-polarized sunglasses. Serengeti does sell non-polarized lenses, but you have to look carefully. The photochromic lenses work fairly well, not getting really light in the cockpit, and the driver gradient work very well in early and late sunlight, when the sun is low and cockpit light is rather dim. Polarized lenses are a problem with LCD displays, and if you ever expect to fly a glass cockpit, stay far away from them, because you won't be able to see any of the displays. NVG filters can make it hard to see the instruments behind them even without polarized lenses. I've never seen the point in requiring filters, because they really don't have much effect. You can't read the instruments through the NVGs anyway, because they can't focus at that distance, and you can dim the instruments enough so that they don't bother you under the goggles. Just because you have difficulty seeing through the filters doesn't necessarily mean your sunglass lenses are polarized. The green filters block a lot of the light you normally see through brown lenses.

Yep, as far as I'm aware, the 'Drivers Gradient' lens doesn't have any polarisation at all. I fly a completely glass cockpit aircraft (EC225) and have never had any problems with any of the screens from either seat with the Drivers Gradient lenses.

Maybe have a look on the Serengeti website where they outline the differences between the 3 types of Drivers lenses: Drivers, Drivers Gradient and Drivers Polarized. Unfortunately I can't link directly to the page because their website is Flash based. :mad:

I also fly EC225s and wear Seregeti Drivers (non-polarised). I tried the gradient versions but found them to be not too good when sun was reflectiong off the water during offshore approaches due to the lightening of the lens towards the bottom. Great for driving but not so good for looking out hovering over water. The Drivers are perfect. No problem with seeing any of the screens or the radios with their LEDs.

I also have tried Silhouette sunglasses (polarised) and again no porblem with the screens, but did have problems seeing the radio frequencies as they were blanked out by the polarisation of the lenses as my head turned to look down.

I have found the Seregeti Drivers (non-gradient, non polarised) to be the best sunglasses for me for flying.

Is here:
Serengeti Eyewear

This seems to imply three brown lens choices (for Drivers): 1) non gradient, non polarized; 2) gradient, non polarized, and 3) non gradient, polarized. If I have this right, all gradient lenses are non polarized. But, not sure that I have this right! :sad:

Yep, that's obviously the website but unfortunately it's not possible to link directly to relevant page (due to the flash).

Click on 'LENS' (at the top of the page) then 'Glass Lenses' (on the left menu). Then you can click on the individual lens types: Drivers, Drivers Gradient ('Ideal for Pilots', apparently!) and Drivers Polarized. It's only with the third type that 'you get the added protection of the Serengeti polarizing technology'.

Did all that and my take is that if your Drivers have a brown gradient lens, they are not polarized. Right? :cool:

Nope. Drivers Polarized have a 'versatile brown lens' but they are, surprise, surprise, polarised. :ugh:


Actually, I've just re-read your post above:

Why do you think that the '3) non gradient, polarized' lenses aren't polarised?

What we have here is a failure to communicate. I said " if your Drivers have a brown GRADIENT lens then (apparently) they are NOT polarized." This would be 2) in my list. For 3) the Serengeti web site clearly describes these as having brown polarized lenses, but says nothing about GRADIENT, suggesting that polarized lens do not have a gradient tint, and implying that Drivers with a gradient tint are not polarized. Is that perefectly clear? :E

I am belaboring this as all the Drivers I have owned have a gradient lens and are hopefully not polarized. Trying to put this to rest once and for all. Thanks for your patience! This has been a challenge to pin down as the Serengeti web site doesnt seem definitive and the online merchants who sell these seem to be even less infornative (Amazon).

Enough. I'm out. :rolleyes:

You give up too easily! This is an issue right up there with solving world poverty or bringing about world peace. Inquiring minds want to know! :ugh:

I will call Serengeti/Bushnell tomorrow and will post what they have to say.

I think the gradient lenses are non-polarized, at least mine are not, but I wouldn't be willing to bet the rent money on it. If the lenses are polarized, there should be a notice on the glasses somewhere. Buying them online, though, makes that hard to determine in advance. I don't buy sunglasses online, because I want to try them on and see how the world looks through them before buying. YMMV.

I now think so too. After poking aroung on the Serengeti web site some more, I found a link to their catalog and this seems to make it pretty clear that the model 5222 Large Aviator Gradient (and other Drivers gradients) are not polarized. I am still going to call the company tomorrow for a hopefully definitive answer.

Talked at length today to two different folks at Serengeti/Bushnell. The tech rep said that in the current product line of Drivers brown glass lenses (shown in the catalog section of the Serengeti website) , if it is GRADIENT, it is NOT POLARIZED. The Large Aviator 5222 model is GRADIENT and is NOT POLARIZED. He could not be 100% certain that there are no previous models which are both gradient and polarized.

Now that this is put to bed, we can turn our attention to lesser issues such as reducing the U.S. budget deficit. :cool: