Goggles, sports glasses or visor – what type of eyewear is best for flying?
20 April, 2026, by Tarquin Cooper
When buying gear, us pilots are normally a pretty scrupulous, even obsessive bunch. We pore over online reviews and manufacturers’ small print, we try things on for comfort – we talk for hours on the respective merits of heated gloves, the authority of seat plates and can dive deep into the details. Yet when it comes to one of the most crucial aspects of flight – our ability to spot thermals, observe other pilots and read the air in constantly changing light, what do we do? You know the answer. We grab a pair of sunglasses off the rack, pop them on and look in the mirror.
At this moment the merits of tint, category rating and lens technology fade in importance. There is only one criterion that counts, it’s the mirror that has the final say. Needless to say, this is the wrong way to choose eyewear.
Paul Guschlbauer: “I’ve used the orange/red coloured lenses from Evil Eye for the last 13 years. Non polarised, no automatic changing (photochromic). Not the glacier level but the level below (Cat 3) because I think it gives the best clarity and sharpness.” Photo: Max Draeger
“The most important thing is what you see from the inside out,” says longtime Swedish pilot Jonas Böttiger, who founded the distinctive flying goggles manufacturer Fluga with Per Segergren. “But people don’t think about that. They just want to look cool. We have a very hard time trying to explain this...
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