Shoes..... a daft question

[3Lions]

I was sitting chatting to a fellow ATPL student in the pub, as you do, and got onto the subject of flight crew footwear.

What we would like to know is, is there any restriction/rule about what type of footwear flight crew have to wear.

The thrust of our musings was along the lines of, during the walk round, wearing leather soles and AVTUR all around etc... are there any health and safety rulings regarding this.

Many thanks for anyone who can shed light on this off the wall question.

Cheers

3L:confused:

[Droopy]

I always used to prefer Doc Marten shoes, though I've been wearing boots for most of my career. DMs are very resilient to contamination, they have very little tread to bring in FOD and they last a long time for the cost. I'd stay away from the oxblood red with yellow and black laces though.

[Moneyshot]

One of our Captains wears patent leather court shoes for mincing around the flight deck. Goes well with her above the knee skirt and black stockings. Real fun to watch her climbing in! Fnarr..
Spose there's no real rule involved.

[HugMonster]

Gotta agree with Droopy. I wear DM's as well, but go for the elastic-sided boots as I didn't get on with DM shoes and couldn't face spending ages fiddling around lacing up boots.

DM's generally are brilliant. They last for years and years, no probs slipping around in the occasional spill of unidentified fluid on the apron, incredibly comfortable for hours on end...

[Hugh De Payen]

3lions,,

Don't wear leather, too dangerous on contaminated aprons. The best shoe by far IMHO is the RAF #2 style shoe, extremely versatile.

[mustafagander]

Being serious for once, in my mob R M Williams elastic sided boots are popular. As far as I'm concerned they're a laydown - very comfortable, allow your feet to swell a bit in flight, last for about 10 years and able to take a very good shine. One point though - I always have a rubber sole glued over the OI leather.
From a safety point of view, I think it's hard to beat wool socks and ankle length leather boots.

[Hugh De Payen]

As opposed to thigh length leather boots for some of our more extrovert flight deck staff I must add, mustafagander.

[mustafagander]

I don't think we want to know about your off duty activities!!! :D

[flapsforty]

A propos Doc Martins for pilots, click on this (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56365) ;) :D

[Loc-out]

You need to be careful as far as shoes are concerned.

A Learjet crashed in the middle east years ago, when it experinced an EFTO.

Result was handling pilot was wearing cowboy boots and heel became struck between rudder pedals and floor.

[mustafagander]

Was the Lear a longhorn??? ;)

[quid]

.......and while low cut slip-ons may be comfortable, they've been known to come off when using large rudder inputs.

[Loc-out]

Not sure if it had a longhorn or not, mate. If it did it sure hasn't got one now.

[low n' slow]

I think it really depends on what type of flying you're into.
I've been up in the north of sweden flying small planes for a while now and the rule we have on clothing is that we have to be able to walk from the end of the runway back to the terminal without freezing. Thats about 2 km. Now if this would be in the winter months, your feet would be U/S by the time you'd be back. Another aspect is that if you walk with shoes in hard snow you'll get severe cuts around your ancles (spelling?!). Therefore you need some type of boot. If I'd been able to I would have bought a pair of DM's, but since they're rare in sweden I had to go with a pair of timberlands. These aren't really the ideal footwear as there is little or no feeling of where or what your feet are doing...
During the summer months it's more up to what you want to look like, snazy or comfy. My street shoes ( an old pair of puma's) works really well and lets me feel the rudderpedals rather well. But even in the during the summer DM's would work as they are quite thin and not terribly hot.

regards/lns

[Capt. Crosswind]

Not a daft question at all 3Lions.
First flying job I had the Chief Pilot forbade the wearing of slip on footwear,after a DC3 incident. Lace up shoes were just tolerated but the recommended footwear was the elastic sided boot mentioned by Mustafaganda et al.
Story is, on landing roll out the pilot applied full rudder throw in gusty x/w conditions - one of his fashionable slip ons came off & jammed between the rudder & kick plate. Acft exited stage left on to the flight strip, albeit at slow speed & no damage done.

He also had a theory involving an airwork operator (photogrammetry) that lost an acft about this time. He was sure a similar thing had happened to a pilot (known to be wearing slip ons) on a single engine approach ( an actual engine out situation). He got low & slow on final & with full rudder throw & 180lbs force required to hold acft his shoe slipped off, acft rolled inverted on short final killing pilot & two aircrew.

I found the RM Williams brand, as described in previous posts, comfortable & took a good shine, as mentioned.
Also better than lace up shoes when doing a pre flight in snow/wet
conditions.