In the early days of the VC10K, one 10 Sqn truckie asked why we wore flying suits on the VC10K, whereas they always wore blues on the VC10.
"Because chinagraph makes such a mess on blue trousers", was one co-pilot (ex-Jaguars) logical reply.
Some trucky captains on 10 Sqn even had clip-on ties for those moments when they used to go and 'talk to the passengers' - whilst wearing their SD caps, of course..... Clip-on ties, I ask you. How distressingly lower order...
I agree with this totally. All of the above uniforms (except the green flying suits and CS95) can be seen in use at KAF, with various combinations - e.g. which of the 4 possible smocks/jackets is the correct one to wear over a desert flying suit whilst out around KAF? Which way out do you wear the reversible thermal jacket? Throw in a mixture of belts (green and desert) and hats (desert and MTP floppies with brims of varying size, berets, even the odd chip bag on some of the many senior officers) and suddenly we look like a bag o'****e.. I know it's not important in the grand scheme of things but it just looks a bit crap compared to the identi-kitted US Army, USAF, RCAF, etc...
Hasn't the RAF learned after all these years - or is there some tradition of looking so scruffy? It was just as bad at RAF Mount Pleasant, anywhere during Gulf War 1, Incirlik AB etc. etc...... There was an attempt to standardise flying suit badges to make the wearers look less like spotters, but the TLP and/or Red Flag folk didn't much like that.