Hi fellow pilots,
Just wondered what your experience and attitude is with respect to uniforms and uniform policy (if any) in (private) business aviation environments. I mean the smaller part of the spectrum: Citations, Phenom 100/300, Beech Premier etc, maybe also high performance turboprops King Airs, TBM, PC12 and so on.
I've been working for a European private operator of a light bizjet over the last year or so and have seen just about everything at the crew lounges of the airports I've been to: from full "airline-style" uniforms with the hat and all to no uniform at all, with lots of in-between things like jeans/chinos and a pilot's shirt with bars.
If you work for a private light bizjet operator,
- Is there a uniform policy you must follow? If there is, are you provided with the uniform by your employer?
- If there's no official policy, can you choose whether to wear a uniform or not?
- If it's up to you, do you choose to wear one? Why? And where do you source it from?
I was told by my employer to wear dark trousers, white shirt with bars, and dark tie, that's about it. The rest was up to me. When we fly empty we don't need to wear the uniform.
I wished there was more standardization on which colours to use (navy blue, black etc), whether the bars should be silver or gold and so on. It just looks weird if one pilots wears blue with silver stripes and the other black with gold stripes.
I think wearing the uniform (and our company issued crew badge) helps going through the crew security check at the airport I'm based. The times I try and go through there without the uniform on they're much more annoying about the checks.
At some airports the uniform also helps in getting the apron door opened quicker without having to explain you're a pilot and need to get to your plane.
Finally have had some nervous passengers (afraid of flying in a "smaller" plane). I believe it eases their minds to see pilots with uniforms up front, it looks more professional.
On the other hand passengers and people around the terminal tend to stare at you more often, but this doesn't really bother me.
Anyway, just curious what fellow colleagues' experiences are!