Interesting to hear of other people's experiences. I only tried on some samples one time, walking around the store for a while to see if they might work. Nothing was clear or sharp for me, and not even just vaguely. It was akin to walking around in a wavy mirror gag room. Maybe trying more sample contacts would have been better, but I saw no pathway towards getting sharp vision from them or getting use to them. To top it off, I'm used to small (gas-permeable) contacts, so I had a hard time putting the large contacts in, and couldn't get them out at all without the help of the eye doctor.
I ended up going with monovision contact lenses, which I know you can't use, for flying at least. Works fine, but I notice that it has made me annoyingly monovision with the contact lenses out too. There are a lot of situations where I can tell I'm just using one eye with the contacts out, with the other eye way out of focus. I haven't read the textbook definition of lazy eye, so don't know if it really is so, but it feels like my eyes have become lazy.
I got my first and only pair of progressive eyeglasses at the same time (this was 4 years ago). I'm not happy with them at all. I only have good distance vision if I look absolutely straight ahead. I though that they would be more like single vision glasses overall, with the near vision part only at the bottom... basically bifocals, but without the line. But they weren't anything like that, more like crappy vision all around except for a tiny spot in the middle. Maybe some progressives are made to be distance vision except for the bottom. If so, someone make a recommendation for what company does that. A lower profile lens height and needing to cram the transitions between powers in a small area probably factors into my progressives being terrible. Normal vision glasses and dealing with near vision by looking under them/taking them off/pulling them down the nose is better. Bifocals might be worth trying.
