We used to have to wear flying gloves and have covered arms for fire protection. Is there no longer a fire risk or is discipline so lax that not wearing flying gloves is ignored?
Are you saying that some of them were flying without gloves? My reaction to blokes calling each other "mate" is just to harumph a bit and shrug my shoulders. Dispensing with gloves when flying a fast jet, though, is just unbelievable. I once attended a talk by a retired USAF VSO who had been a fighter pilot in the Korean War and had been in a crash when his aircraft caught fire. He had gloves on but rolled down so that his wrists were exposed. One wrist was so badly burned in the fire that he was in danger of losing that hand which was only saved by means of some very clever surgery. After that I never flew without ensuring that my gloves were pulled right up and securing my flying suit sleeves around them, a lesson these "mates" need to learn, it seems