I worry about people in aviation who talk about such trivial issues and elevate them to such high importance. Someone who is obsessed with such obscurity does not give me any confidence at all. Professionalism comes from learning your craft and then being able to competently carry out your duties to a high standard with a great deal of common sense thrown in. The key word being learning. I agree with wearing a uniform and that people should at least look neat and tidy. Whether there was a study or not, the public, on balance, would have some preconceived ideas about the way people look and dress and make judgements. It's how we are programmed in modern days. The unfortunate thing about that is, that the uniform, looking all similar, does not and should not become the metric of the intelligence that resides in it. Those of us in aviation who constantly rely on books to tell us what to do, a bureaucratic approach to flying, are the real concern. It was mention in a previous post about dumbing down of the uniform, I would suggest it's pilots who are being dumbed down by overly prescriptive and constantly changing SOP's (which is a danger in itself) not the status of the uniform. If you live by the rules you will die by the rules. Don't get me wrong SOP's are an important operational safety tool, however, there are a few incidents, that one can point to, that highlight quite well, that there is something more to aviation than any book or set of rules can give you. Furthermore, if you have 1500 pilots all reading the same thing, then you have potentially 1500 interpretations. But this is a whole new subject dealing with how adults learn and adult education which we do very poorly in the airline industry.
By the way if you are going to argue a position that the uniform maketh the pilot it would be prudent to at least source uniforms from professional tailors. The last uniform I received look so bad I threw it away and went and bought my own so I would look, funny enough, more professional.
Cheers
Don't think Don't think