Why is it that using polarized sunglasses is not recommended for use when operating aircraft?

Question

I am a pilot and I have heard through the grapevine that using polarized sunglasses in the cockpit is a bad idea because you can't see the gauges or the LCDs or something or another down those lines. If anyone has any real information on this topic I will give you ten points.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi, Im a pilot and I just bought myself some polarised sun glasses despite the info on the net that says its not recommended. I found on the net several arguments discouraging polarised lenses, for reasons that have been stated previously by other people above....that is, it may prevent you from seeing LCD screens, GPS screens etc at certain angles and it interferes with vision through the plastic windscreens (causing you to see stress colours in the plastic which can be distracting or blacking out your vision completely. I have also seen people on the net say that it actually reduces the "flash of light" reflected from sun off the wing of traffic. There are many testimonials on the net that strongly suggest that all of these can be a major roblem. There are some articles though that look at the positives of polarized lenses. They help you see through haze better and give you good contrast of clouds against the sky. I have found that the arguments against polarised sunglasses pretty convincing, however, for the type of flying I do, the types of aircraft I fly and the locations I fly in... and that I fish more than I fly, I made the choice to go polarised. Having said this, I always make sure I have a pair of non polarised aviation sunnies on hand just in case. If you are in American then you might want to check out the FAA recommendations against polarised lenses. By the way I am an Aussie ... we spell polarised with a "s" not "z", so I havent misspelled it! : )
I should stress that you need to check out the sunglasses with what you are going to fly. My partners car had LCD screens that used to "black out" when wearing polarised lenses at certain angles of my head, on the other hand my cars screens were fine. It does happen, it just depends on the the glass used!!

Answer 2

Well, as a boater, this captain can tell you that they are great for glare EXCEPT, when looking at LCD instrumentation (depth finders, GPS, Digital compass, etc., these guages (like an LCD watch) use "Polarized lenses" in their display (that's how LCD works), if you glance at the guages, the polarized lenses, block out the numbers on the face of the gauges, making them difficult to see because, polarized lenses only let in vertical light waves. Just for the record, I prefer "Ray Ban" AVIATOR sunglasses, they cover the eye area well, and provide the best all around protection, without color distortion, and they have been that way since 1938, fads come and go but Ray Ban "Aviators" NEVER, EVER, go out of style !

Answer 3

There are two primary reasons that polarized lenses are frequently not recommended for use while flying. First, as you know, most modern avionics have gone from mechanical drum frequency indicators to various types of luminescent displays, and polarized lenses effectively shut out the light frequencies from some of them (in other words, you can't see what frequency you're using, or dialing in, unless you take the sunglasses off). I can verify that as a matter of experience. The second reason is that some higher-end aircraft, such as Beech King Airs, have polarized windows, and the polarized lenses of your sunglasses result in no outside vision through them. Again, I've "seen" that, too. It's not a problem in most lighter planes, though.

Answer 4

I can't see what's set in the altitude allerter with polarized sunglasses. You'll also find a problem with the king radios that have an LCD instead of the glowing display.

Since polarized glasses are supposed to cut glare, you might find that it's hard to spot traffic on sunny days, since htey cut the glare off the traffic's windscreen. I'd recommend against polarized glasses for flying.

Answer 5

Polarized sunglasses are useful for killing glare from roads, particularly wet ones; the light is naturally polarized so the glasses work for that purpose. Glare sources visible from aircraft are mostly not polarized, so polarized glasses won't help. Some LCD-type indicators use light polarization to work, so if you have polarized glasses and the axis of polarization is wrong, you won't be able to see the indications.

Answer 6

The disadvantages of a pilot wearing polarized lenses is that pilots may need to tilt their heads left and right, making the polarizing filter less effective when the frame front is no longer parallel to the ground.

Answer 7

Many instrument displays and aircraft windscreens are polarized. Most pilots who have tried polarized lenses have found them unsatisfactory.

Read these postings from pilots on the subject:
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/tech_ops/read.main/82209/

Answer 8

polarised glasses are glasses that have some form of UV secure practices like solar colorings yet probbobly not as intense. it can be a reliable theory to get the polarised ones simply by fact ud be retaining ur eyes, and confident there reccomended for on a regular basis use wish this helps

Answer 9

I wear them flying the cherokee 180 and have no problems reading the instruments, but have t take them off to differentiate the colors and on the sectional