PPL Instructors wearing collar and tie

['I' in the sky]

Another unreasonably long post

Image and professionalism:

I have worked at three schools so far, the first was shirt, tie and gold bars, at the second, trousers and polo shirt were fine and at the third back to shirt, tie and gold bars.

The first was teaching modular from PPL through I/R, in the US.

Could somebody please tell me what is professional about a schools owner or marketing staff lying to students about the balance of their accounts, the availability of instructors or examiners etc ?

Also what is professional about having an instructor staff of which 90% were not properly qualified to fly commercially or instruct in that country, or about instructors who file IFR flight plans on the strength of UK IMC ratings ?

Or about sending students on illegal solo flights without endorsements from properly authorised instructors ?

Or sending students and renters flying in aircaft which are out of hours, telling them that they can be flown on a 10 hour extension when that is actually illegal in that country ?

Or most of the instructors not even having the legal right to work in that country ? Funnily enough I believe one of them even ended up in jail, no doubt still wearing his gold bars.

I could go on but I won't because it's obviously fine if the instructors all wear shirts and ties ! And believe me flying at a latitude of 35 degrees there has to be a good reason for that. It's called trying to hide something with overkill.

The second school was a fairly typical UK flying club where trousers and polo shirt were fine. Well I assume they were because they supplied the polo shirts. So what is wrong with smart but casual in that type of environment. Despite the future ambitions of some, the majority of people involved in club flying are doing it as a leisure activity and private flying is part of the leisure industry. There also has to be a practical side. What is the point of wearing a white shirt knowing that by the end of the day it will have additional permanent decoration courtesy of dry wipe pens, grass tie downs, dipsticks etc.

My current school is again shirt, tie and gold bars and that is what I would expect at an integrated one. Its what people, particularly those from airlines, want to see when they come visiting, so let them see it.

Have I got something against shirts and ties ? Absolutely not, I love them whenever it's the right thing to wear. But wear them properly. For those who consider a shirt and tie always implies professionalism either when on you or those who you deal with, consider:

If I visit you and am expecting you to be wearing a shirt and tie and you are wearing a polo shirt I might be a little surprised but I will hear you out. Why am I expecting you to wear a shirt and tie anyway, do I know everything that your job involves ?

If you are wearing a tie but the knot is one of those which is vertical down one side and sloping down the other rather than a decent winsor I am not going to do business with you, the image suggests you don't really know the best way of doing things.

If you are wearing a shirt but it is not ironed I am not going to do business with you as the image suggests you can't organise and complete what really needed doing.

Some shirts are designed to be worn with ties and some without. Those designed to be worn with a tie look absolutely soooo NAFF when worn open collared so be careful when you take the tie off in summer. The image suggests you might be a Medallion Man.

If you appear at first sight perfectly presented, albeit possibly in what somebody else has instructed you to wear, but call me 'mate' when you don't even know me...........