For my first instrument training flight, I used Foggles, which are basically safety glasses with an opaque coating on the upper and peripheral parts of the viewing area. The theory is solid. In practice, however, at least in my case, not so much. I didn’t have a good view through the clear area, and they picked up tons of glare. Nothing can really be done about the glare, but I tried to fix the view. At first, I thought some of the fog coating got on the clear part of the glasses during the manufacturing process. In my infinite wisdom, I tried to remove it. I found out in a hurry that acetone will etch that particular plastic. I was sure that I’d ruined my $25+ training glasses in about three seconds. I bought some diamond paste to see if I could polish out the etched area on the one side and maybe clean up the view on the other side. Somewhat to my surprise, I was successful at restoring smoothness and the original level of clarity to the damaged side. Unfortunately, the “original level of clarity” was still slightly cloudy or otherwise out of focus on both sides, though. I continued to work both sides with the paste for probably another hour, but I never could get a clear line of sight through them. I went looking for another solution.
I decided that the next best option for me, since I wear prescription eyeglasses and need something that accommodates them, was ASA Overcasters. They are a thin plastic shield attached via a metal clip to regular eyeglasses. They flip up and down, which is a huge improvement over the Foggles, which must be removed and reinstalled (under the headset and over existing glasses, if worn) as dictated by circumstances. I’m fine with the thin plastic shade part. It only needs to maintain its shape and block my view to the appropriate quadrants. The issue I have is with the clip. It has a strong spring, but the bits that hold it to the user’s eyeglasses are thin wire, with nothing but tiny rubber caps over the ends to protect the lenses. These caps slide off rather easily, presumably to facilitate replacement, but good luck finding them when they come off unintentionally. Notice that I said when and not if. The small contact area allows the entire assembly to shift as well, and occasionally, they will come all the way off when transitioning between up and down. I believe that a wider contact area with a permanently attached rubber tip or coating would improve the product greatly with only a minimal increase in either production cost or weight.
Although not ideal, I intend to stick with the Overcasters and not look into other alternatives at this time.
Grumpy 