The prevailing culture in a sport can change. Thirty years ago your riding instructor might have teased you for wearing a helmet. Not now. Five years ago your skiing instructor might have teased you for wearing a helmet: not now. Nowadays I wear a flying suit, a light plastic helmet, gloves and a parachute and don't care what people think. Both of the aeroplanes I fly regularly have jettisonable canopies rather than doors, and, as one used to belong to the Armee de l'Air, and the other to the RAF, I don't feel too daft getting in and out of them wearing flying kit, but I confess that, if I flew a Cesssna, I might dispense with some or all of the kit. There's not much logic in this (apart from the difficulty of abandoning that type of aircraft in flight).