How many stripes can I wear when a passenger in a C152 and can I log the flight as P2? 
@Peter, I’m about to buy bifocals or varifocals as it becomes increasingly difficult to fly with standard glasses. I need distance correction but my ability to accommodate has become poor enough that I can’t read or use a laptop computer with glasses. I use a special pair of glasses for flying which are slightly weaker than my normal glasses while still giving adequate distance correction. They work great for the instrument panel, but reading a chart on a plate holder or kneeboard is another matter.
Did it work well for you with the bifocals you mentioned above or would you go for multi/varifocals today? Does anyone else have good experience with multi/varifocals? I tried a pair some years ago (paid by my employer for computer/office work) but I totally hated them. Maybe they were just cheap ones or the technology has improved since?
Opticians in Sweden don’t get hiccups if you tell them you’re a pilot, but they can’t give any meaningful advise about glasses for flying either.
I also need distance correction (approx -1) and have been flying with varifocals for years. Quite happy with them, but when first getting them needed to get accustomed a bit. Don’t know if this goes for everyone, but you need to move your head a bit more to keep things in focus, especially when watching left-right. Sort of became natural, and nobody accused me of acting like a bird, so it’s only subtle I guess.
I have varifocals for office use. Lower end down for reading stuff on the desk, upper end for seeing the PC monitor. These also work great for reading say a newspaper lying flat on the table because the near end is near and the far end is, ahem, far. These were easy to get used to but I think varifocals which go all the way from kneeboard to full-distance will take longer to get used to especially if you want to fly reasonably tight left base turns to final, which need to see out of the bottom left of the lens and that is where the lens is not going to be giving you full-distance.
The glasses I actually fly with are described here and they work brilliantly but you won’t be able to turn up at your medical with them 
The caveat I would add to these is that the almost-instant-getting-used-to probably requires that the difference between your instrument panel and the full-distance is not more than 0.5 diopter (e.g. -1.0 for distance and -0.5 for the panel).
The glasses I posted the two pics of above also work well for flying, and due to the small reading inserts they do work for left turns to the runway, but they are not as good for the instrument panel, IME.
If someone needs a distance correction of say -2 or more then I am not sure if there is a good solution, because of the bigger “correction gradient” between the panel and full-distance. I believe some airline pilots have tri-focals, but they are probably not doing tight left turns. You may have to accept varifocals and the learning curve.
Peter wrote:
The glasses I actually fly with are described here and they work brilliantly but you won’t be able to turn up at your medical with them The caveat I would add to these is that the almost-instant-getting-used-to probably requires that the difference between your instrument panel and the full-distance is not more than 0.5 diopter (e.g. -1.0 for distance and -0.5 for the panel).
Actually, with correction my distance visual acuity is a slightly better than 1.2 (or 6/5). That’s why I can go down a bit in strength to see the instrument panel clearly while still have 1.0 (6/6) vision at a distance which will satisfy the AME. I wouldn’t need your (ahem) special solution so ordinary bifocals could work well for me. Since you can get really cheap glasses by mail order these days, maybe I should get a pair with the cheapest frames available just to check how it would work.
Airborne_Again wrote:
I wouldn’t need your (ahem) special solution so ordinary bifocals could work well for me. Since you can get really cheap glasses by mail order these days, maybe I should get a pair with the cheapest frames available just to check how it would work.
I eventually got myself a pair of bifocals and I have used them on a number of flights. They work great!
Peter
Of what you said I assume that your far vision is good and the only problem is that you need correction for near vision. If this is the case then you are in my camp.
I had problems seeing the map, so the line between the far/near parts of the lens was brought down, how much down was determined by me holding a map, then a line was drown on the lens. Never had a problem.
Opticians have a few red flags…,
School teachers and enginerrs. The former talk to you like a 7 year old. The latter are never happy.
@Ben I had to read back up this old thread to try to work out your Q My distance vision is just OK for flying, at about -0.5. So I do have that corrected. But then one cannot easily read the instrument panel. One solution is to go halfway, which is what I did for years, for both flying and driving. But you will never pass your flying medical with glasses other than a full prescription, regardless of whether the latter is practical; the solution is a cheap pair of bifocals for passing the medical A better solution, even more illegal, it to correct the dominant eye for distance, the other one for the instrument panel, and the reading inserts for the kneeboard. This is what the thread I linked to describes but you will need to find an optician motivated primarily by money (I mean even more than usual) to make that.
Regarding not being happy, I have met loads of people who had glasses made with the rotation (astigmatism correction) made incorrectly. Myself included, 2 or 3 times… it seems to be a common mistake by opticians.
On the subject header, another common mistake is to get cheap off the shelf reading glasses for continuous use. It’s OK if you have no astigmatism but most people who need a correction do have some and they should get it corrected. It really feels a lot better for long term use.
Peter wrote:
One solution is to go halfway, which is what I did for years, for both flying and driving. But you will never pass your flying medical with glasses other than a full prescription, regardless of whether the latter is practical;
For my FAA 3rd Class medical, the exam consists of looking across the room at an eye chart and telling the AME which line I can read, with distance vision contacts in. I then tell him I can’t read with contacts unless I’m wearing reading glasses. He replies with something along the lines of ‘getting old is tough eh?’ and types “must wear corrective lenses” on the face of my medical. I then figure out what works for me. End of story.
