AR5 made you look like a Tie fighter pilot, but was only good for the first 15 seconds while you did your world beating Darth Vader repertoire, then it became boring, and about 2 mins later boring turned into horrible.
The helmet, at least on my head, tended to climb until the eyepieces were at forehead level - it only stayed put under a cloth helmet, which used to hurt my ears dreadfully...
From the dinghy drill I recall it wasn't bad as scuba gear for a short time.
The marigold gloves gave your fingers trench foot (I know, I've had it) as your fingertips boiled in your own juice. Anybody who thought it a good idea to fly in this crap, 'for practise', should be shot - like much of our gear it was very uncomfortable, and once you knew how to don it etc you should have had the odd refresher and that's it.... one reason why people are so bad at drills etc is because they aren't stupid enough to avoid being bored by them.
At night, in NVG - shoot THAT b*****d twice, first time in the nuts. (2nd time 20 mins later).
As for PN's
and black flying boots circa 1980 c/w Shackleton scuffed toe caps.
I asssure you that every pair I ever owned, included the ones I now wear in snow and paddock, were/are of that variety courtesy of Norman too - the ESM position crates, Loral and ARAR/ARAX, both seemed designed to scrape toecaps.
Happy New Year! Anyone finished the turkey yet?
(Thought I'd get in early)
Dave