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#406488
I wear contact lenses. They give me 20/20 long-distance vision, which is great for flying. Unfortunately, I am in my late 50s, and need reading glasses (when I wear my contact lenses).
For hang gliding, I face two optical problems. Firstly, I have trouble reading my vario or reading the frequency display of my radio. Secondly, after I land, unless I have my reading glasses with me, I can hardly make out the tiny font sizes of my smartphone when I send and receive text messages.
Last month I tried a friend's pair of sunglasses with little bi-focal inserts. Man, I thought! I gotta get me some of these!
The local Safety shop (where you buy hard hats, hi-viz jackets, ear plugs, etc.) had these for $NZ9.60 (about $US6.60) https://www.eskosafety.com/shop/esko-ma ... ation-1-5/
I tried the +2.0 strength bi-focals, but the +1.5 was clearer for me.
I tried them today in the air. See the 49 sec mark in my video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbNgCyBz2bQ
What a tremendous difference they made. Despite their cheapness, they fitted me really well. They aren't tinted, but they block UV light. There are no rubber skirts (that start to peel off the plastic frame after the first hot season).

I should have bought bi-focal eyewear 5 years ago.
#406489
Odakyu-sen wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:55 amFor hang gliding, I face two optical problems. Firstly, I have trouble reading my vario or reading the frequency display of my radio. Secondly, after I land, unless I have my reading glasses with me, I can hardly make out the tiny font sizes of my smartphone when I send and receive text messages.
Last month I tried a friend's pair of sunglasses with little bi-focal inserts. Man, I thought! I gotta get me some of these!
What a tremendous difference they made. Despite their cheapness, they fitted me really well. They aren't tinted, but they block UV light. There are no rubber skirts (that start to peel off the plastic frame after the first hot season). I should have bought bi-focal eyewear 5 years ago.
Odakyu-sen,

I fly with bifocal eyeglasses, and I have no problems. The top half of the eyeglasses can have zero prescription, and the bottom half can be whatever prescription you may need there. I use lenses that block out all UV, both A and B, as a bonus in eye protection. These lenses are perfectly clear. The maker of the eyeglasses can make the "close-up" lenses as large or small as you may need, so you can just look downward at small print without tilting the head up or down.

The SCUBA crew uses "half-lenses" that glue into place in a dive mask, so they can have "bifocal" dive masks which are half "window glass," and half prescription lens. If you use ski goggles with flat lenses, you could do the same. Ski goggles are great for extreme cold weather. They can literally protect the eyes from becoming frozen (the damage to your vision would be permanent, if that happened). In the cold, I use ski goggles that work well with my eyeglasses (find the ski goggles that work with eyeglasses by trial-and-error). Cold is a relentless enemy; you can't just "tough it out" against the cold.

Hope that helps.
#406490
Sunglasses with reader lenses in can be bought for < $20. I found that it makes a BIG difference to get ones with no lines in, otherwise it can feel weird when you look up or down - there is a kind of "step" in your visual field and it feels like you are going to step off a kerb.

I found "Magnivision" reader sunglasses excellent - good UV filter and there is no discernible line when you move your head or eyes. I wear them now as my default sunglasses, for flying, driving, or just reading outside.

They seem to have been discontinued in stores but I found them on Ebay for >$15.

Leo Jones
#406520
Odakyu-sen wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:55 am I wear contact lenses. They give me 20/20 long-distance vision, which is great for flying. Unfortunately, I am in my late 50s, and need reading glasses (when I wear my contact lenses).
For hang gliding, I face two optical problems. Firstly, I have trouble reading my vario or reading the frequency display of my radio. Secondly, after I land, unless I have my reading glasses with me, I can hardly make out the tiny font sizes of my smartphone when I send and receive text messages.
Last month I tried a friend's pair of sunglasses with little bi-focal inserts. Man, I thought! I gotta get me some of these!
The local Safety shop (where you buy hard hats, hi-viz jackets, ear plugs, etc.) had these for $NZ9.60 (about $US6.60) https://www.eskosafety.com/shop/esko-ma ... ation-1-5/
I tried the +2.0 strength bi-focals, but the +1.5 was clearer for me.
I tried them today in the air. See the 49 sec mark in my video
What a tremendous difference they made. Despite their cheapness, they fitted me really well. They aren't tinted, but they block UV light. There are no rubber skirts (that start to peel off the plastic frame after the first hot season).
I should have bought bi-focal eyewear 5 years ago.
I face this same problem, but I assumed that all bifocal glasses were flat lenses. This is the first curved-lens wrap-around style I've seen. I'd really like to use some of the new flight apps on my phone but have never been able to see them. Thanks, I will definitely try these out.
#406522
Odakyu-sen,

It may need mentioning, but polarized lenses often do not work well with the Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) that some vario makers and cheap digital watches use as display screens. Depending on which vario you may have there, you might want to avoid polarized lenses. To test for polarization of lenses, if you put one polarized lens over another, rotating one lens (as in doorknob rotation) will "darken" and "lighten" the two overlapping lenses, maybe enough to cause them to become solid black. "Fisherman" sunglasses are often polarized. They may show cloud textures very nicely, but check the view of your vario screen, as you rotate one lens above it.
#406529
This may sound silly, but I'm going to try mounting a fresnal lens to my vario display this flying season.
I've been using bifocal sunglasses for a while and just never happy with them. I still have a Ball 500H and that thing is so easy to read without glasses, but lacks the digital information that my Flytec can display.
#406533
Harry wrote: Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:41 pmThis may sound silly, but I'm going to try mounting a fresnal lens to my vario display this flying season. I've been using bifocal sunglasses for a while and just never happy with them. I still have a Ball 500H and that thing is so easy to read without glasses, but lacks the digital information that my Flytec can display.
Harry,

That idea may work well for visibility, especially if the lens is high quality. However, leaving the unit standing in strong sunlight then may not be a good idea, due to the concentrated solar heating in the display. You may want to put a cloth sack over the gadget, on the ground. Just a thought.