Charlie King goes bug-eyed in Flugasports’ new lightweight high-tech goggles.
Swedes are a stylish bunch. This is based on my experience, and applies to all the Swedish people I know. Two trips to the Swedish ski resort of Åre, to visit said stylish friends, reinforces this belief. The trendy ski resort is home to mountain-loving paraglider pilots Per Segergren and Jonas Böttiger, who dreamed up and brought to life the Rovfluga goggles. They wanted to break the mould, as “all goggles on the market now look the same”.
Rovfluga are inspired by… insect eyes. They are eye-catchingly different to look at, and superbly comfortable to wear. Something I haven’t liked about ski goggles in the past is the restricted field of vision, but I don’t get that with these. They do elicit a certain amount of pointing and giggling from your friends the first time you wear them (at least, I think it was the goggles) but from the other side of the Carl Zeiss lenses the world is all very rosy. Literally.
The goggles are made from a new bio-based material called BASF, which is a by-product of corn production. Mine came with orange-gold mirrored lenses which boost definition in cloudy conditions. They make the world look sunnier than it is. Flying with them on brighter days I initially found them to be a bit bright, but actually they filter out 100% of UV-A, UV-B and UV-C rays and I did get used to the brightness.
Per kindly sent me a second, darker set of lenses anyway. Like the goggles, they come in a protective pouch so you can cary them with you and change them over if light conditions change. In all there are four lens options, all Carl Zeiss optics with two-layer anti-fogging construction.
On that note, the customer service was above and beyond, and the website and manual very professional. The website offers detailed information with lens descriptions and wavelength graphs to help you choose the right lenses for the conditions you’ll be using them in. At 1,900SEK (€190) for the goggles and 600-800SEK for replacement lenses Rovfluga goggles are not cheap, but they are top quality. They will now be a permanent part of my flying kit, and if we are lucky enough to get some skiing this winter, I intend to wear them on the snow too.
