The Zurich sunglasses shown on the right protected Gene M. Phillps of Puyallup, WA, from injury that could have resulted from such an accident. Take a look at the pock mark in the lens. This is a story worth retelling, and here it is in Gene's own words:

"It's strange to admit this, but I bought my Zurich R/C sunglasses for the wrong reason. I got them because they're the best sunglasses I've ever worn, Let's face it, accidents happen to those reckless guys at the field, not safety-minded people like me, right?

Wrong. I was recently given a reminder that accidents can happen to anybody. It wasn't even my plane. I was standing about 10 feet to the right and even with the tail of a plane while talking to someone. The plane was held nose high, with the throttle run up to check the mixture. Several things happened in the space of a few seconds. As I glanced to my left at the plane, something hit my glasses. There was a strange popping sound and a thud to my head as though someone had hit me with a club. The engine stopped running. Out of curiosity I went over and inspected the prop. The prop was fine.

I took off my glasses and had a look at them. Almost dead center on the left lens was a dent. It took a few minutes, but we finally figured out that the glow plug had loosened and exited the engine at bullet-like velocity. I don't even like to think about the possibility of losing my eye if I had not been wearing my Zurich sunglasses. I saved the glasses as a reminder, and so I could show the company when they came to the Puyallup show. They very graciously exchanged the old pair for a new one. I will always wear my Zurich's at the field; I've learned that glow plugs, propellers and such can't tell the safety-minded guys from the reckless ones."

Darren Holden from Zurich notes, "It gives me sort of a nice warm feeling to realize the claims of Zurich sunglasses to withstand a 12-gauge shotgun blast from 30 feet not only applies to our hobby, but that one person probably saved his eye because of wearing them-wow!"

I agree with Darren; this is an impressive story. Readers may have seen Zurich glasses praised before in these pages and in those of other modeling magazines. In addition to being "safety glasses," Zurich sunglasses are among the finest in terms of giving your eyes genuine relief when you're out in the sun for hours on end. This has to do with the clarity of the lens and their ability to filter out UV radiation. On more than one occasion, when covering major modeling events that last a few days, I've wound up wearing Zurich glasses because my eyes were more comfortable with them than with other glasses (and I always take extra sunglasses).