Honestly I wear the uniform out of self-pride, not because someone in management tells me to do so (edited for PWP).
Why I wear my hat; well, it’s a personal thing. If the F/O or S/O do not wear a hat or jacket, I personally don’t care. I will not tell them to wear a hat or jacket. We can be from different bases and the F/O out of HKG in the summer may have it in the closet while an ANC Capt has his on year round.
I wear my uniform out of pride. No, I am no a vain person (quite ugly perhaps, depending on how many drinks you have had) but I like to look professional or smart as some may call it.
It is like kids in boarding school, you have a set uniform but you need to accessorize. I see kids accessorizing with different things here in HKG and it defines them.
I see pilots with some great looking hats; believe me some great looking hats. The ones you can wear your headset over and what some guys do to get them this way is remarkable. To me, have fun with the hats if you so choose?
I am a Captain, I am not you Father nor management and I will not dictate to you on how to wear you uniform, it is a personal thing but I must say” be proud of your profession”. Many people have died in our profession and we must keep it as professional as possible and we must look the part.
We make the profession look easy but we are professionals. When we make it look easy, people think that anyone can do it.
Management over the year have taken the professionalism out of our job for industrial reasons and ranked us as merely bus drivers and Capt “Sully” Sullenberger has demonstrated just the opposite.
I am not the uniform police in CX but all I am saying is: if you want to be respected, look respectable, be proud of your uniform and if someone says you are just a mere pilot or bus driver, punch the fcuker in the face.
I broke one of my rules "PWP", posting while pissed so hence the mistakes.
