Boy, you should see some of the overseas students, four bloody great gold bars flying a Cessna 150, next it will be an all gold uniform with four blue stripes, on a serious note, Joe Public wants to see a smart looking crew turn out, also in the case of an evacuation a hat gives clear identity to the voice to be listened to, this has been demonstrated many times during real life and test evacuations. It seems that wings parades are a thing of the past, didnt one of your Royals recently just walk on stage to get his?