Who has glasses?

[Guest Bushmaster]

Hello folks,

How many of your out there are performing your flight duties with glasses? How many of you are required to wear them when going up or selected for flight training despite having have to wear glasses?

All my life I had 20/15 vision and now by age 28 it started going bad. I am going to be getting my first pair soon, and it is kind of hard to accept that I don't have good vision anymore. Kind of a like sending your kid to school with his first pair of glasses, I thought getting some encouragement from those who has to have correction while flying would help me a bit.

What are the disadvantages wearing glasses while flying in your opinion?

Thanks

[Guest Navtastic]

I wear glasses every time I fly/sim. No biggie, but only because I've been wearing them since I was 20. I'm approved to wear contacts while performing flying duties, but have never done so.

Only a few disadvantages: 1) I have to wear the issued glasses if saddled with a super strict instructor. Those things are hideous. 2) It's a b!tch to get your quick-don on "quickly". I have to take my glasses off before putting it on. 3) I'll tell you what it's like to wear the glasses under the helmet as soon as I've tried to do it myself.

Overall, I much prefer seeing clearly over trying to find reasons not to wear my glasses.

[Guest Lightninbo]

get on the contact lens program... then you are only required to have an extra set of glasses in your bag.

[Guest newflyer]

Look into PRK. Its approved for USAF flyers, not sure about the Army though. I got it at Wright-Patt 2 years ago there was a couple of Army guys getting it done as well, not sure if they flew though.

Blind as hell before, 20/15 now.

[M2]

Second that on PRK, got my eyes zapped in 2001 and am still 20/15.

Cheers! M2

[Guest spar91]

at what point (vision) should you consider prk/lasik?

oh and i second the ctl program suggestion!

[Guest kottlows]

The only bad thing about PRK/Lasik, besides the buring pain for a week after the op. is the fact that it DQ's any of you aspiring astronauts from the space program. Doubt that applies to many people here, but for those bright eyed, eager ROTC guys / hopeful Lts, it might be something to consider.

Barring the above, though, all my friends that had the op. are all seeing great!

-WARHAWK-

[Guest Bushmaster]

I am a hopeful candidate for the Army flight program soon and my eyes seem to be at -.75 at this point. It is at a point that yes you need glasses to see clearly in the distance but it is too small that PRK is not recommended. I have about another -.75 before I can be DQ for the Army Flight Physical 1C and I am worried that glasses can worsen myopia and I am DQ by the time I am selected.

Last week, I flew with the aeroclub C172s at Osan and it sucked to realize that I can't see the far distance clearly anymore.

[mmkk111]

I wear "Geek Goggles" when I fly. I don't wear the black frame aviators that are issued. I have a better-looking pair, thank goodness.

The only thing I hate about wearing glasses is you can see the edges of them and it can screw up your peripheral vision a little when you’re yanking and banking. Another one is when you pull G's, sometimes they can slide down your nose a little. I only had to deal with that during T-34's. Not a problem in the C-21 :cool: .

I think I'm going to try the contact deal.

If you're worried about your eyes getting worse, just wear your glasses when you fly. That's how I do it. My vision is 20/40ish. Unless you absolutely need them, be selective about wearing them. Your eyes shouldn't get too lazy that way.

MK

[ 25. August 2005, 19:32: Message edited by: mmkk111 ]

[Guest tentoad]

Bush

Don't sweat the glasses man. I lasted until 31 before I needed glasses. Squinted through physicals for years... Headaches and all...

If you are borderline you will need them to fly but not for much else. Over time you will want them to drive at night or if you care about whats on all those powerpoint slides you may carry a pair...

In addition, if you are borderline good to go- why go through all the crazy hassle of contacts or surgery?

Touch your finger to your eyeball and blink and wince in front of a mirror for a while like a circus clown- If you think you can look cool doing doing that in public then get contacts. Complain to strangers about how much you hate dry contacts. Heck, you wont wear them to do anything but fly...

As for the surgery? Risk your vision or career so you can correct a few points? Lasers and razors in your eyeballs when you are 20/25???Lenscrafters here I come!!!

I felt dorky wearing them for a while until I started seeing all the stuff I was missing, like street signs and air traffic.

8 years later I read line 10 on a physical and poof no more glasses required for flight. I still wear them anyway.

Have fun with it since you have a choice. Get some cool glasses and some dorky ones to amuse others.

Glasses are no big deal, and after a short time you will forget you bothered to post this message.

[Guest Bushmaster]

I wear "Geek Goggles" when I fly. I don't wear the black frame aviators that are issued. I have a better-looking pair, thank goodness.

Frame picking is also going to be a big deal for me. Can you guys post some frame pics that look more aviator type?

If you're worried about your eyes getting worse, just wear your glasses when you fly. That's how I do it. My vision is 20/40ish. Unless you absolutely need them, be selective about wearing them. Your eyes shouldn't get too lazy that way.

This I can do until I am selected, after I am selected and start flying for the Army, I won't give a hoot about wearing them, as a matter of fact, I would go contacts and once they stabilize or at the suitable age, I would have PRK.

Thanks for all encouraging posts though guys, I believe I have a lot of room until I can be DQ'ed.

Here I work on 3/6 Cav Apaches here in Korea, and I have yet to see one Apache pilot with glasses. It made me think maybe all bad vision dudes went Blackhawks or Chinooks or something.

Another question, how do you guys resolve the sunglasses issue? You get prescription sunglasses or those which change according to light levels?

[Guest Bushmaster]

LASIK is a DQ P.E.R.I.O.D. in the AF.

Not in the Army, though I would not get LASIK, no flap zap stuff...

[Guest KillYourself]

That's not true. I read that LASIK is approved for airframes that stay below a certain FL and under so many g's (3 I think it was).

If I can find the release, I'll post a link.

[Guest Bushmaster]

Dude if you're worried about what type of frames you're going to get then you've got some other "issues" to deal with other than learning how to fly an airplane

No, I have no other issues, I am not worried about the frame of glasses, I am trying to have a informal "conversation" type of thread going on rather than a formal one, you know. If it did sound like I am worried about the frames, sorry my bad. I could care less. I thought different frames would affect your peripheral vision differently therefore I wanted to know what kind of frames you guys use.

[Guest Bushmaster]

Hey Beerman,

What airframe are you flying in the AF? Assuming you are AF.

[Guest toughnuts]

Originally posted by KillYourself:

That's not true. I read that LASIK is approved for airframes that stay below a certain FL and under so many g's (3 I think it was).

If I can find the release, I'll post a link.

Ok, but inorder to get into those aircraft, you have to go through upt, aka aircraft that can pull more g's than the waiver or whatever will allow. So inorder for that to be applicable you would already need to be flying that certain airframe.

[Guest Bushmaster]

Just out of curiosity Beerman, (since I am going into the Army program and will never pull high G's ever)

When you pull above 7+, do your contacts move, slide down etc?

[Guest Remy1492]

I have gone up to 8.2 Gs in a 15C with contacts, no problem.

I also say get contacts for a year, try them out, surgery is kinda permanent if they screw up.

They are a pain to learn but you can still wear cool glasses with them and they are a must for NVGs and like said above, quick dons.

I only wear mine when going out clubbing, shooting or flying. (not during Iraqi dust storms obviously). That keeps my eyes healthy, not having them on everyday, all year.

I carry several backup glasses just in case the contacts fall out or get dirty. The AF gives me like, what.... 5 pairs a year? So from that last 3 years alone I have 15+ pairs of ugly ass glasses.

I took a regular pilot set of glasses from the BX and had them make it prescription so I could use the randolphs instead of the gay black ones we usually get from the opt office.

[Guest Bushmaster]

I got a PRK pre op work up today.

It was "Rx -0.5, -0.5 CRX OD -0.75 + 0.25 x40, OS -0.75…K's 43.75 @087 44.5@09" and the MD recommended me for PRK to the surgeon who will do the operation. He didn't make a decision yet. I was told there is a 99% chance that I will not need glasses for flying in the future, but there is 1% I might still need glasses. I wish I was close to flight school application, but I am at least a year away, if I knew my eyes would stay like this, I might not consider surgery and on the other hand, it is tempting to have 20/15 again in both eyes without glasses, especially at night time.

It is like between a hard place and a rock....

[ 30. August 2005, 06:55: Message edited by: Bushmaster ]