Wearing glasses w/ a helmet

[zlerner]

Anyone have tips on wearing glasses with a flight helmet? I normally wear glasses, but during my flights in the T-6, I'd wear contacts, as I couldn't get comfortable with the helmet + glasses combo. (Even the issued glasses with the bayonet temples.)

I'm not much of a fan of contacts either (dry eyes), so as I get ready to fly in the T-2 (and my fleet aircraft), I'd like to give glasses another shot. Any thoughts?

 

[ATLien]

I asked the glasses vs. contacts question earlier and the asnwer was overwhelmingly in favor of just putting up with the contacts. There are eye drops for contact wearers with dry eyes. Just wear them when you fly.

BTW, most of the responses came from FOs.

 

[Pcola04/30]

I would suggest going to medical and ordering some new glasses with the 'cable type' ear piece instead of the bayonet temple. I dont believe for a minute that the bayonets were ever designed to be worn with a helmet. The cable style on the other hand is not even noticable with the helmet on....very comfortable, and will keep the glasses in place regardless of the sweat pouring off of you of the amount of G's you pull

 

[zlerner]

I would suggest going to medical and ordering some new glasses with the 'cable type' ear piece instead of the bayonet temple. I dont believe for a minute that the bayonets were ever designed to be worn with a helmet. The cable style on the other hand is not even noticable with the helmet on....very comfortable, and will keep the glasses in place regardless of the sweat pouring off of you of the amount of G's you pull

Awesome. This is what I was looking for. I'm going to medical tomorrow anyway so I'll see what they can do for me...

 

[FatKid]

I absolutely hated flying with glasses. I wore soft contacts and experimented with different brands until I found some that I could put up with.

When I had to wear glasses I wore the gold ones with the regular temples. If you have comfort issues bribe one of the PRs to get you the gel helmet liner and ear cups. We got them when we got NVGs.

The bayonet style glasses are ok in the helmet but they fell off everytime I looked at the ground when I wasn't wearing the helmet.

No comment on the cable type.

I prefered the contacts because I had a better field of vision and it was better with NVGs. However, on long missions they would dry out. I had to wear safety glasses on the flight deck during preflight. My real complaint was flying at night. Sometimes it was harder to see the ball with contacts. I tried them both but opted for contacts due to comfort. Plus you feel like a big tool walking around with them. However, success trumps vanity.

 

[zlerner]

Just ordered a set of cable type frames. I'll post back when they come in...

The clear lens variety of the gold aviator frames looks like they're straight out of the 80's, but if they're comfortable, I'll stop minding pretty quickly. How glasses could look so cool with tinted lenses and so dorky with clear lenses, I don't understand. At least they aren't as bad as the BCG's.

Not sure if I have the gel helmet liner & ear cups you're talking about, but the PR did give me the option to swap out the standard ear cups for "memory foam" ones. They seemed more comfortable than the ones I previously had.

 

[Chubby]

You'd know if you had the gel liner ... they are 100% better than the standard issue bubble wrap ones. Get the gel if you can, you'll never look back.

 

[ip568]

I wore glasses under my flight helmet for my career in P-3s with no problem.

Glasses present two problems:

1. They do not fit under O2 masks -- in my VT10 T-1 flights they rode up on top of my O2 mask. One reason I chose VP vs VA was not to have to wear a mask and all the rest of that jet crap every time I went flying. Maybe they've developed glasses you can use now with a mask.

2. Glasses cannot be worn with the Navy's emergency smoke masks. There is no room. I had to take mine off when we had practice/real fires in the P-3 wearing the smoke mask with walkaround O2 bottles.

 

[ip568]

Btw...

... the Navy's standard issue glasses used to be the black horn rims, also known as "BCGs" (birth control glasses) because the owner looked so ugly that he'd never get... well, you get the picture...

 

[CommodoreMid]

On an eyesight related threadjack, do many NFOs who are glasses wearing get their eyes fixed? Will the Navy pay for this?

 

[Brett327]

On an eyesight related threadjack, do many NFOs who are glasses wearing get their eyes fixed? Will the Navy pay for this?

Yes and yes.

Brett

 

[Dunedan]

Glasses suck. Contacts suck.

 

[Pcola04/30]

I wore glasses under my flight helmet for my career in P-3s with no problem.

Glasses present two problems:

1. They do not fit under O2 masks -- in my VT10 T-1 flights they rode up on top of my O2 mask. One reason I chose VP vs VA was not to have to wear a mask and all the rest of that jet crap every time I went flying. Maybe they've developed glasses you can use now with a mask.

2. Glasses cannot be worn with the Navy's emergency smoke masks. There is no room. I had to take mine off when we had practice/real fires in the P-3 wearing the smoke mask with walkaround O2 bottles.

My glasses fit fine with the new mask that they issue for the -45.

 

[FlyinSpy]

Glasses suck. Contacts suck.

Heard Thur nite in the jet while on an NVD-3 hop:

"Man, glasses suck."

Seems to be a continuing theme here. Much dissatisfaction on the Reserve side of the equation, when USNA Mids can get Navy-paid-for PRK, while deploying SelRes ECMOs don't rate....