Flying at altitude without proper eye protection can cause eyes to swell—and even essentially freeze. This swelling effect happened to one pilot named Shorty Schroeder. After Schroder removed his goggles, his vision immediately began to deteriorate. Luckily, he was able to land that day, but his friend John Macready was troubled by the sight of his swollen eyes. A pilot himself, Macready knew the painful effects of the bright sun on his own eyes. First of all, pilots are not required to wear sunglasses by law, but it does help in certain situations.
Sunglasses may be mirrored and prescription and come in any shape and form that matches the uniform, but polarized glasses are not recommended. As it is with most things, sunglasses for pilots are a matter of personal preference. Although there are currently no regulations that dictate sunglasses in the cockpit, in some situations it is simply more comfortable to wear them. Additionally, they even serve as protection for the eyes in certain situations.
When climbing to cruising altitude, planes normally leave the clouds behind and fly in sunshine. Clouds are made up of small water droplets or ice pellets that reflect sunlight. It is the same effect that the sun has on snow, where it becomes much brighter and blinding, which can be very uncomfortable. Sunglasses are the easiest way to combat this and help pilots to avoid distractions.
The same goes for aprons where planes are parked. Airports have huge areas with concrete that go on for miles. On sunny days, these massive areas also reflect the sunlight and can be blinding. So if you see your pilot during the walkaround with his aviators, it is not necessarily just because he or she wants to look cool, but to avoid the glare and have a clear view.
As we all know, planes fly all the time, day and night. That also includes sunrise and sunset. Just like driving into the sun, pilots flying an airplane face similar challenges. Pilots need to be able to see things outside the cockpit, such as the runway, mountains and planes, but at the same time also need to be able to see the instruments inside.
So we can see that it is not only for style, but also for comfort and protection. The simple answer is: no. However, there are a lot of advantages to them, which is why it seems that most pilots indeed do have them.
First of all, aviators are very light. So, even on long working days you can wear them all day without irritating your ears or nose. The thin frames also allow little to no interference with the headsets that have to be worn while flying.
The earpieces can press on bigger and thicker frames, making them uncomfortable and even cause distractions, which pilots try to avoid.
That weekend I went and got myself a high-quality pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses that you can see in the header picture of this article! Luckily at my next eye exam, there was no damage to my eyes but it led to a great conversation with the optometrist! Keep reading to find out what other things you need to look for when selecting a pair of sunglasses.
Sunglasses are a very personal purchase and style can be just as important to a person as function. To help with this, most sunglasses manufacturers produce lenses of all colors but there are certain lens types that can really make a difference to a pilot. By far the most recommended lens color is gray as it distorts color the least. This becomes incredibly important when looking over cockpit instrumentation showing limitations depicted by bands of color.
NOTE: Using lenses of a yellow tint can cause you to fly into weather that can be deteriorating more than you realize! I made this mistake with a yellow visor on my helmet. It was a foggy day and I took off down an exploration cut line a few hundred feet off the ground — I was in a helicopter ;.
Several minutes into the flight I looked over at my passenger who was as white as a ghost. I flipped up my visor and we were in near-zero visibility!! To me, the visibility had looked fine under the visor! First, look to the design. The aviator was originally designed to give military pilots the best possible coverage for their eyes in the sky.
Both the teardrop shape and more rectangular aviator shape feature larger lenses that provide full coverage of the eye socket for pilots. Additionally, the design keeps the lens close to the face, so a visor can easily be lifted up or down. Even the bayonet temples were originally designed so that the pilot could slip their glasses on and off without having to take off their helmet or headset. While original aviators typically came with green tinted or AGX lenses, the Federal Aviation Administration FAA now recommends gray lenses, as they allow in the most natural colors.
All of these elements have made aviators the go-to choice for pilots both amateur and professional alike.
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