I may have mentioned this firm
before but they are by now well practiced in doing various single and bifocal lenses, especially in Randolph frames, free issued to them.
I must have sent them best part of 10 frames, for various people as well as myself.
They charge 30-50 quid.
They even did one Lindbergh frame which was a pig due to the precision required and that was 170 quid.
Edit 2019: their customer service has gone down the plughole.
I only have two sunglasses fro flying: Lindbergh Titanium (I wear those as normal glasses too, since 1999) and Randolph Pilot (in the F-18 ;-))
I can highly recommend Zeiss Skylet glasses, they are contrast enhancing and non-polarizing. I bought them when I was gliding a lot and it’s a real treat, especially on hazy days or when the sun is low you can still clearly see the cloud contours. Who needs a radar when you can look right through it ;)
A little update on the topic of reading inserts:
You can get stick-on ones. They actually use no adhesive; you just wet them and push them on. There are various products on the market; this is one which uses a fresnel lens material which is obviously a constant thickness
but as one might expect it is difficult to read small text through it due to the fresnel lens construction. Here it is on some glasses used for skiing; these are just Julbo sunglasses with distance correction lenses, and you can see the press-on insert
There are other press-on inserts which don’t use the fresnel principle and they should work better. You can find them on amazon – example.
Peter wrote:
There are other press-on inserts which don’t use the fresnel principle and they should work better. You can find the on amazon
Correct. I’ve tried both and while the 3M ones may be optically better (read: more correct, according to my optometrist), the El Cheapo ones on Amazon actually work better. I don’t need them on my flying bi-focal sunnnies but have them on the clear night flying specs. Work a treat.
I can now report that the Hydrotac lenses are brilliant and due to not being fresnel they are much better than the 3M ones above.
Still not as even as proper lenses (I would not use them for reading a book) but perfectly usable for readings things occassionally.
Slightly different topic on sunglasses:
My sunglasses are quite dark which is needed down here. However, the cockpit screens do appear a little dark in spite of them being at max brightness.
So I thought of getting ‘gradual shading’ sunglasses. Looking out the windshield through the dark bit, and onto the screens through the unshaded (or less shaded) bit. I understand people use this for driving to get the same advantage.
The only disadvantage I can see is that much light may still get to the eyes from the sides. The reflections of the low wings. But maybe one could get some shading on the glasses at the side/bottom too? May look a little awkward but I don’t care about that.
Any ideas or suggestions?
For other activities such as sailing or skiing, I usually wear day lenses and non-prescription sunglasses, but since the contacts never correct precisely, I sprung last year for a pair of the Serengeti Modugno with the “drivers gradient” non-polarised lenses. Due to my astigmatism, it was challenging to find a lens shape and curvature that could deal with the cylindrical correction, and I am now very happy with it. The lenses are slightly photochromic and with the gradient, I have great visibility onto the instrument panel while the outside glare is attenuated a lot.
I have gradient shaded bi-focal lenses put into Ray Ban aviator frames. They are completely clear at the bottom and what I’d call medium tinted at the top with the gradient running down to where the near-vision (calculated for the distance to the panel, pretty much what an optician would call ’computer glasses) starts. They work very well, only downside is the weight, as the lenses are pretty heavy.
@aart, unless you find an optician who does the tinting in-house (mine does, but very few do), you’ll prob90 have difficulty finding side-tinted lenses.
Thanks @172driver. I guess that you don’t have an issue with wing reflections in a 172.
But the problem is solved. By my wife as usual. Well, it was not much of a puzzle for her since she calls me ‘donkey’ regularly after one of my senior moments.
Better get ADS-B IN now in addition to ADS-B out with these on..
