rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

As pilots of small models we probably depend on good, clear vision more than most r/c pilots. I've know for several years that my vision has been declining, but like every aspect of aging, I've been in denial about it, telling myself I can see fine without glasses.

I met with rog and BSARGE this morning to do some flying and I lost orientation of all three models that I flew. One of them is a pretty big forty-size plane, too. Part of the problem is flying at 8:30am when the dew is evaporating off of the field, creating glare in the bright sun. It's very hazy to begin with. But, even with sunglasses I was having a lot of difficulty focusing on my planes.

When I got home I dug out my old pair of prescription glasses that I got about ten years ago (but never wore). I put them on along with a pair of sunglasses designed to fit over them, along with a cap with a visor. I went outside and looked up at the sun. I couldn't believe how much better I could see. I was amazed at how bad my vision has become. It's almost a wonder I could fly a plane without crashing it.

So, anyway, I will now bring my prescription glasses to the field and wear them. I guess I should wear them when driving, too. Now, I guess I'll have to start thinking about all the other old-age stuff I've been denying, like my stomach. I think I'll go have my eyes checked again, too, in case my lenses need updating (and, I'm sure they do).

David

Jburry

I'm still a decade short of middle age, and my eye's perscription stopped changing about 5 or 8 years ago. Still, I can't read a stop sign at 10' without glasses, so I'm pretty much bound to 'em.

Trouble these days is glare. I just have to get some dorky lookin' over glasses sunglasses soon. Flying with glare induced tears streaming down your cheeks just sucks....

Hope you brought'em all back in one piece. Looks like y'all had fun!

J

exocet-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

Welcome to my world. I've had glasses since I was ten and my eyesight is so poor that I can't see the fingerprints on my hands at 4 inches. I rely heavily on the sunglasses that go over my prescription glasses. I find that they work better than prescription sunglasses because they shield the light from the sides, top and bottom as well. My new realization is that I am starting to hold books and newspapers farther out than I used to........

Tim

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

These used to be advertised in Model Aviation. Maybe they still are. Like yours, Tim, they wrap completely around prescription glasses and shield glare from the sides and top. I guess I'll need to build a plane for one of my K&B's now. av8rsodt gave me an old Bramco carb that was designed to fit on the K&B Torpedoes. I have a .35 Greenhead, so maybe I'll try to make it throttle.

David

Digger-RCU

Most posts that are made here fly right over my head. When you guys get to talking about lathes and machining things I am clueless. Discussions about altering the porting of a given engine leave me scratching my head. But, I knew if I waited long enough, a post would come up that I actually know something about!!!. Wooohooo

Dave if you havent seen an eye Dr. since those glasses were new, you should certainly get a complete exam. I dont know the number of birthdays you have had, but if middle age is correct, you should be seeing your Optometrist at least every two years. I advise every year once you are 55. There are lots of changes that can happen to the eyes as we get into the good years that can be well handled if found in a timely manner. Also, eyes that are younger than both of ours can make up for some of the minor focusing issues that present themsleves. But, as we get get along, we lose the ability to cover up some of the problems that we have. (Read that as your perscription might not have changed much, but you may need the perscription more than you used to)

Glare is certainly a major issue with RC flying, I think the over glasses can be very good, but I use perscription sunglasses. I take my old pair of normal perscription glasses and have the lenses tinted what ever color I like when I get a new pair of clear glasses. In that way, I always have a pair of each. I like orange-brown color tint for flying as it reduces glare well, but also seems to enhance contrast on overcast days.[8D]


I agree with you though about needing good acutiy when flying small planes. Whenever I have flown my 1/2a stuff and gotten the responce from folks who say that small planes dont fly well / Bigger is better, they arre usuallly in their 60s or older, and I understand that what they are really saying is they cant tell if small airplanes fly well because they cant see them.


Great topic Dave!!!


Digger

Mr. Mugen

Indeed it is a great topic. If what they say is true "your only as old as you feel" then I better get planning for a dirt nap soon. My back is my down side at this young age. The eyes are changing fast too. Since flying planes the last few years I have made it habbit to wear polarized lenses while flying. It cuts all glare and makes it easy to see orientation of the plane. I can see a future visit to the eye doc resulting in some extra nose weight.

Kevin

BSARGE

Dave-
Don't feel bad man....that field is tough in the morning...I find myself losing orientation from time to time, that morning sun there is tough! Oh and I opened up the hatch on my blink to find the battery & one servo disconnected from the receiver!!! I guess that would explain why I lost control....

-Bill

MJD

My Feedback: (1)

I first got eyeglasses in grade 10, but my prescription was very mild, a bit of astigmatism and slightly near-sighted. The problem really showed itself reading blackboards. I was actively flying then too. RC never presented a problem to me, or so I thought until a bit later.

In the early 1980's, maybe 3-4 years after high school, one of the aircraft I was flying was a kit-bashed low wing Sig Komander with an Enya .60 TVIII (nice combo, many fun flights). Anyhow, one Sunday morning at the club field I was in the middle of my usual WOT dive, pullout and low pass, headed at over 100 for the edge of the field - a huge sod field with one lone dead tree about 20 feet tall at the entrance - and my buddy said "I think you're going to hit that tree". No way I said, I'm a good 30 feet above it.. WHAM! Airplane fragments rained down all over the field. Ummm.. oops.. I really perceived it at a different attitude than it was. After that I too dug out my prescription glasses, and realized that my orientation was as much or more from memory as it was from any visual clues. Also, my depth perception was terrible, accounting for the tree landing.

But stupid me, I again shrugged them off for many years, then nearly went through the same thing again except I managed to regain orientation in time. I never fly without them now.

I really dig the tint my optometrist did for me - he calls it a "faux Serengeti", kind of a beer/rose tint that does wonders for increasing color contrast and sharpness, and is just dark enough to reduce eyestrain and glare without compromising overall visibility.

MJD

p.s. the thing that really peeves me about my vision now, is that I started to lose my close-up focus as soon as I hit my 40's. My eye doctor said "welcome to middle age".

longdan

My eyesight problem is of a slightly different nature - while my vision is 20/20, I am severely colourblind. I hear guys talking about what colour schemes offer the best visibily on a model, what colours to put on the top and bottom of the wings etc. It makes little difference to me. On my models, I have to put patterns of contrasting dark and light colours to tell which way up it is. If I see diagonal stripes, it means it's up the right way. If it's one solid colour, be careful not to dumb thumb it into the ground.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

Well a good time was had by all anyway...I loose control at a 1 oclock area of the field , so I tend to stay away from it and also try to keep my back towards the early morning sun.........Dave's larger wonder flew great as did my original one (he built)..the stick needs new front landing gear, its at the stage where it bends on every landing....Bsarge had a mishap with the electric blink, but it looked like an easy repair.......Rog

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Wow, it's really great to read about how others have had to correct their vision. I don't feel like it's something I need to ignore anymore. Thanks for the info Digger. I'm going to the Optometrist next week.

MJD, I also have an astigmatism in which one eye is slower to focus on distant objects than the other eye. This is bad for flying because we are constantly glancing at various things: the plane, trees, the ground, etc., and they are all at different distances. This morning I really noticed that my depth perception has gotten worse. On the final turn of my landing approaches I simply could not tell how close my plane was to the trees at the edge of the field. I will ask about the various tints and get one that improves contrast.

Thanks. I'm glad I started this thread.

David

BTW, the 112% Wonder is, as rog said, a nice flier. BSARGE's lecky Blink is very cool.

Mainspar

My Feedback: (27)

I had to get a physical a couple of months ago so I could be a victim at my youngest son's cub scout camp...they need to know if you can see and breath before they shoot your eye out with a BB gun and then choke you to death inside a collapsed tent.

My doctor asked when I had last seen an optometrist or ophthalmologist (pretty sad...my uncle was an ophthalmologist and I had to google to get the spelling right...). Anyhow, I provided my doctor with the delaying tactic response of "What?". She said, "you heard me". I said....1993 ish? She said, "can you see where you are going?". I said, "...mostly...", so she wrote that on my cub scout form. She also wrote "healthy" on the form, but her handwriting was decoded incorrectly and I was accused of being diagnosed as "hostile" by the camp nurse.

I have the short arm reading problem, but do reasonably well otherwise. This thread is a good, healthy reminder though. I do struggle with my small planes at times. Thanks for the nudge. I've got to tell you, though, my vision improves everytime I go to the flying field. It actually improves while driving there. No, I'm not BS'ing. Must be a mental "hate the job, but love airplanes" thing.

Andrew

I've been wearing glasses since the 6th grade - they're the first thing I pick up in the morning and the last thing placed on the lamp table at night. Have had retinal tears and surgery in both eyes. My vision corrects pretty well, but I have so many floaters that they sometimes seem like a plane appearing from the side while I'm flying.

I keep spare glasses everywhere - if I broke or lost my current pair, I would be essentially blind and certainly couldn't drive. I sympathize with anyone with poor vision.

andrew

BMatthews

I've used glasses to fly almost all my life. I actually needed them earlier but just didn't bother.

I'd suggest you take your favourite pair of sunglasses in with you that are a tint that you'd like to use for flying. Get a set of glasses tinted to match JUST for flying and day time driving if you need them for that. Having less hardware in front of your eyes means less surfaces to cause distortion and glare. And speaking of glare get the anti glare coating. You'll still find that you want to wear a hat with a brim that shades the lenses but it'll help a lot anyway. Stacking lenses like with over glasses really messes things up and I don't care what they say on the infomercials...

My problem these days is close focusing. Only about 10 years back I had no trouble at all reading even the little numbers on transistors and IC's. But these days I have about 10 pairs of 1.25 reading glasses scattered around the house and a set of 1.5's comes in for the really small stuff. My big fear is what will I do when I need a set of reading glasses to be able to see well enough to find the reading glasses....

They say you're only as old as you think you are. If so then that's good news for me. I THINK I'm around 15 and act like it whenever I can get away with it. And best of all every year older I get is another year younger I act like! ! ! !

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Here's my too scents;

I wear glasses. I love 'em. The make me feel safe. I've had debris of all kinds splatter my face but (knock on wood) my eyes have remained undamaged.

I have bi-focals. I'm too cheap to pay for an extra pair of prescription bi-focal sunglasses but I found add-on near-sight plastic thingies that are held on with a drop of water - that work. Surface tension is all it takes. They've been on my sunglasses for three or four months now. I think I paid about $20 for the pair from some fishing site on the WEB.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Yep, about two years ago everything within about 18" of my eyes went blurry. It happened very fast, like with a week or so. I also have a pair of reading glasses in every room.

For some reason I don't have trouble reading my computer screen. I have it set to 1280x1024 and the smallest print is easy to read. Maybe because it's illuminated. But, anything printed on paper, forget it.

rc doc

I just had my cataracts operated on and I am amazed at what I see now. I did not think that my vision was that bad , but it was. I had quit judging a couple of years ago because I was missing the tiny things that you need to notice. They won't get away with that now. I had glasses put on me in the 11th grade; I went out for the rifle team and coud not see the sights and the target at the same time. I have been through bifocals and trufifocals also. See your eye doc reguarly and wear the lens. You will see more nad get more done. I wear Rx sun glasses and a broad brimmed hat when I am in the sun.
John Smith

Big Al-RCU

Hi Dave, yeah eyesight is something you take for granted until you start to notice it isn’t what it used to be. For example a few years ago I took an 010 Mustang to SMALL but didn’t trust myself to fly it at a strange field in front of spectators. So, I conned Digger (and Dickey Bird) to demo fly it for me. This plane was the worst possible combo for visibility. It was small, painted silver, which blended nicely into the blue sky, a very small frontal profile and was very quick which meant it went out of sight (for me) in a couple of seconds.
Digger, thanks again. Since then I have had cataract surgery and what a difference. I only need reading glasses. The only ‘downside’ if you can call it that is my eyes seem more sensitive to bright light/glare than before. Maybe because the cataracts were blocking out the sun and now more light gets thru? Good sunglasses are a necessity.
Al Lenz

PS Here is a tip for bi-focal wearers that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. Go to the drugstore and get a pair of glasses that focus at arms length and use them for computer viewing. Now the whole screen is visible at one time, rather than just the few lines that require constantly nodding your head up and down.
al

propbuster

My Feedback: (1)

Well, I started getting nearsighted when I was about 14 and have worn glasses ever since. That shot down my ideas of flying for the USAF and after getting a little older and flying full scale on my own, I couldn't even pass the visual acuity for a class 2 (commercial pilot's) medical cert. Private pilot is as far as I can get! I've been wearing transition lens for many yrs but they don't help much with glare. Polorized clip-ons are a big help. I've also joined the "I need longer arms to read that" club now too, and my depth perception is getting bad also. I was flying at an unfamiliar field with a friend and was trying to line up an approach without my home field reference points to go off, and almost flew right into the line of trees at the far edge of the runway! My friend yells out can't you see that line of trees? I said YES, but, just not how far away they are !!

eroc144

My Feedback: (1)

I had 20/20 when I was 18 and still hoping to fly for the USAF or Navy. But within 3 years the world turned fuzzy and I was ready to blame global warming when a friend suggested I visit the eye doctor. I've had face jewelry ever since. I'm near-sighted and astigmatic, and without glasses I can't read my car's speedometer. A few years ago I noticed that companies were using a smaller font on their packaging, but I solved that by peeking out from the bottom side of my lenses, or by sliding my glasses down the bridge of my nose. No company's gonna slide their legalese past me that way!

At 45 my eyes are still changing slightly so every year I get my prescription updated, and last year's pair becomes this year's backup set. Like Andrew, my glasses are FOLO - First On, Last Off - and I enjoy watching the floaters when sitting in a waiting room or watching paint dry, or...

Two words: Prescription polarized. I use 'em for fly fishing and for flying. They cut all glare, give excellent depth perception and color rendering, and really aren't all that dark.

EG

gcb

raindave,

When you get your eyes checked, ask them to also check for cataracts. Some years ago I got a new set of glasses that only lasted a couple of months before the prescription was no good. I had cataracts in both eyes. One of the symptoms was when driving at night oncoming headlights would produce a haze that lessened seeing objects. A cataract apparently diffuses light.

Long story short (I know, too late) I had both lenses replaced. My doctor set one lens for 20/20 and the other a bit less (~20/30) so that I could see things close also.

Since I have been near-sighted since I was a child, I've never had better vision than after the lenses were replaced.

As an added bonus, the lenses are UV protected.

George

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah 'floaters'! I asked my eye doc about them - and now I wish I hadn't. He said they were pieces from the back of your eye that had broken off and really were 'floating' around - some of them are BIG! Cheese and crackers, what else is going to fall apart next?

Digger-RCU

It is interesting that y'all would mention floaters. I have had some since I was a kid. I learned pretty early on not to talk about them. I saw strange looks on my parents faces when I would describe these things that looked like they were flying around the room.

I figured they were something that I could see that no-one else could, but they were still normal.

It was until I was in Optometry school that I found out what they really were. The only time they get in the way now is when I am looking in the microscope, or flying on a cloudless day.


Al, I am glad to hear that you got the cataract surgery. I remember very fondly flying that awsome little mustang!!


When I was in Memphis, I was examining an older genltleman who was having blurry vison problems. When I told him he had a cataract, he said, "No, I have a Buick."

Digger

flying poodle

I've had floaters for many years now. My solution is to just flush a second time.

I have several weed-wacker conversion engines that I like to play with. I was checking the magneto on one of them by spinning the engine with the plug out to see at what RPM I needed to get a spark. BAMM! something hit me in the face. The plastic starter cone on my 1914 model tower hobbies starter shattered, with a large hunk hitting just below my eye and spinning its way to my eyebrow. I went to check myself in the mirror and just noticed redness in my eyes. I then rubbed them (I know your not spos'd to do that) and a little bit of something white was on my finger. Yep, had a big chunk of the white of my eye chopped up by the little plastic spinner.

The good news was that I still have 20/20 vision. I used to wear safety glasses when grinding metal or wood, but now I wear the them any time I am using any rotating tool.

gcb

When I first heard that joke, it was an Asian (or Oriental) gentleman and the reply was, "No, I have a Rincoln".

I told that to the doctor that removed my cataracts. He laughed, and I got the impression that he couldn't wait to tell it to his colleagues.

TRUE STORY. Just before retirement I worked as a consultant next to a Japanese fellow (also a consultant). I was considering telling him that joke but his phone rang and he answered, "Herro". I reconsidered telling him that joke. We became friends and exchanged jokes verbally and over the 'net.

George