NVG's and reading glasses

[HighCountry]

My goal was to make it to 50 with no limitations on my medical. Well at 51 I finally had to cave in and use correction for my near vision. Distant vision is still 20/15 but the length of my arm could no longer overcome the charts and checklists in dim lighting. My only struggle is with NVG use and hoping for input from those that have dealt with this.

 

Using the NVG's with the glasses is no problem, its the looking under that I'm struggling with. With the panel and reading distance in focus, if I look to the ground outside for better depth perception while lifting or setting down it won't be in focus. I can't seem to look under both the NVG's and the reading glasses. I doubt an eye doc in my area would have any knowledge of NVG useage and I haven't found anything in searches online so thought I'd reach out to anyone else that has dealt with this. Suggestions on glasses or technique greatly appreciated.

[Wally]

Set the NVGs high enough that you can fly the panel underneath goggles and far enough out that you can see around them (I need that anyhow to use a clear visor). I wear a Gallet and progressive bifocals, it's harder getting the reading focus spot on the far side of the panel than using peripheral/unaided out along side the tubes. If I want aided, chin down a little more.

 

I wear big Ray Ban Aviator frames so I've got enough lens. my wife says they're ugly on my big, wrinkly punkin, but it works.

[HighCountry]

The big frames might be the difference. I use the Gallet and progressives too but I let my wife pick out the frames...

 

I can fly the panel underneath the goggles, it's more an issue when I try and look around both goggles and glasses to the outside. I'm either tipping my head back enough it looks like I fell asleep or the ground is fuzzy as I'm looking through the outmost part of the glasses. I might try raising the NVG's up even more though so it's more chin down for aided and less chin up for peeking under and to the side.

[Wally]

I run my helmet adapter mount up to next to last index, and out the same, next to last index, I effectively have three viewing areas- lots of aided, a fair bit of panel and enough unaided around the tubes to be useful. I think extra lens area is a huge advantage, used a shorter vertical span lens until a few years ago, I could set up to look around tubes for panel or exterior, but not both.

[aeroscout]

I don't know if it will help but I use a bright white penlight to read finer print without any glasses. I don't worry too much about washing out my dark adaptation as you don't have much while on the goggles.

[JohnLeePettimore]

I would post this under my own "complete rookie questions" but this is more directly related to this thread. How common is it to fly with NVG's? Is that just for certain jobs or is it something that helicopter pilots do as part of the normal routine?

[Spike]

I would post this under my own "complete rookie questions" but this is more directly related to this thread. How common is it to fly with NVG's? Is that just for certain jobs or is it something that helicopter pilots do as part of the normal routine?

 

Common usage of NVG’s is in the EMS and Public Safety (Police & Fire) sectors….. At 15K-ish per copy, it’s not affordable for most other sectors……

[Flying Pig]

It must be head shape. I have smaller framed glasses but my goggles and the panel are still visible through my specs without me doing anything.

[apacheguy]

I would post this under my own "complete rookie questions" but this is more directly related to this thread. How common is it to fly with NVG's? Is that just for certain jobs or is it something that helicopter pilots do as part of the normal routine?

As far as army flying, all army pilots are NVG qualified. Some fly them more than others (Apache pilots are required to be current on the FLIR, NVG currency has historically been less important in Attack units). During the winter months my goal for my UH-72 pilots was to fly 50% of our hours either night unaided or NVG. Most army pilots seem to fly about 10-20% of their hours on NVGs.

[Wally]

I would post this under my own "complete rookie questions" but this is more directly related to this thread. How common is it to fly with NVG's? Is that just for certain jobs or is it something that helicopter pilots do as part of the normal routine?

 

In EMS it is routine. AMC requires management approval prior to unaided night operations, and then only in specific circumstances.

[HighCountry]

F.P. - I have no problem seeing through the goggles and also the panel clearly. It's the last 5 feet to the ground when I'm trying to look under the goggles and pick up the details the NVG's distort like slope, etc. Coming in to asphalt, no problem but mountain top, ridgeline, unprepared LZ, where the features are less distinguishable through the NVG's and where I put the wheels are critical. It seems the part of the corrective lens I'm looking through under the goggles is perfect for panel/checklist distance but not so great for beyond that. Without the glasses, no problem, but then the panel is fuzzy. 2 out of 3 ain't bad I guess.

 

There's always the possibility that my head is odd shaped though. I'll ask my wife...

[ospreydriver]

I'm not a glasses-wearer, though at 40 my fear of impending reading glasses grows daily.

 

I am an NVG instructor, though. If your glasses are set up properly, e.g. a bifocal reading lens for gauges if necessary, and the appropriate prescription for forward viewing, you should be GTG.

 

Adjust your goggles at about 25mm from your eyes to allow enough look-down. You may need small frames or bifocal contacts to allow it.

 

Anywhere other than the panel or focal vision shouldn't be a big concern. Your peripheral vision is already 20/200 or worse, even for someone with 20/20 focal vision. Keep your scan moving and you'll see that drift that is normally in your peripheral flow.

[Gomer Pylot]

I just leave the glasses at home, or at least in the case or pocket. There is nothing I need to read in the dark. If there is fine print to be read, that's what the SLF in the back is for. In a two-pilot IFR ship, yes, you probably need to be able to read, but in a single-pilot ship at night, there is no need to be reading anything. I find landing to be the hardest part of flying with googles and glasses, since I can only see the ground through the near-vision portion, and it's hard to tell how high I am. So I've just quit wearing glasses at night altogether. If you can't read the gauges and the GPS, then you're probably stuck wearing your glasses, but I don't need them for that, just close-up reading, so I don't use them. YMMV.

[CharyouTree]

I know a lot of this is about compromising some bits of vision for others (sacrificing goggle for reading) but I have to agree with Gomer, with a caveat thrown in about putting the goggles out further from your face.

 

If your goggles are further out from your face than OSAP (you can't quite see a ring around your image), you're losing viewable area which means more scanning to see the same amount/smaller image in your face. That's the last thing I'd want, personally.

 

Granted, I'm not wearing reading glasses, so...

[Rupert]

A significant number of pilots, especially military pilots with lots of NVG time, wear their NVG's too close to their eyes, in order to maximize field of view. Unhappily, it doesn't work the way they think it does, and it creates other problems.

 

Run the goggles out farther, to 10 or even 15. You will have an impression of reduced field of view, but in compensation you will gain valuable peripheral vision to the sides and underneath the goggles.

 

When we hover on NVG's, or even unaided, for that matter, we get most of our hover cues from our peripheral vision, and not from our central vision. With the goggles further out, you will find it easier to hover at night.

 

In regards to glasses, pass by bifocals and go straight to ungraduated trifocals (trifocals with lines separating the separate grinds). Have the optometrist adjust the prescription to 16" and 32" for the two magnifying portions of the lenses.

 

Adjust the glasses and the NVG's so that you look through the uppermost portions of the glasses in order to see through the NVG's, and so that you can see under the NVG's and view the instrument panel through the 32" mid-range portions of the lense.

 

Within a few minutes of doing this, you will forget you have NVG's and glasses on, and you will find it natural to look at the instrument panel, and you will have a large spot in front of your face through which you can see in the dark.

 

Try it on the ground, not flying. Play with the distance of the NVG's from your face. You can see how it works prior to investing in trifocals. Just look out of the cockpit through the NVG's, and when you want to look at the instrument panel, move your eyes and not your head.

 

Once I learned to do this, it totally changed flying EMS at night for the better. Try it.

 

Move the NVG's away from your face. It may seem as though you have lost field of view through your NVG's, but you will have gained an effortless view of the instrument panel and important use of peripheral vision at a hover.

 

Pay no attention to the guys who think they lose something by moving the goggles away from their face.

[aeroscout]

I have to second what Rupert said. I didn't make it clear in a previous post that this is what I do under goggles, and I should have.

That leaves plenty of room in peripheral vision for the flashlight I keep on a lanyard around my neck to illuminate any near reading I need to do.

I also find it easier to hover by looking underneath and to the sides of my tubes.