Pilot Shirts -Where can you buy a good one from?

[I have control!]

Could someone please tell me where you can buy a good quality, ideally 100% cotton, breathable, well fitting pilot shirt as I have been flying for 11 years now and am fed up with the usual rotten rubbish that is provided as standard...
Thanks.

[puntosaurus]

Buy a nice cotton shirt, take it to a tailor and get them to cut the sleeves off and make epaulettes.

[Arkwright]

I get mine from Landerwood sent direct from the USA.

Excellent quality, if a little pricey, but the do last and look good after many washes.

[cptjim]

Not 100% Cotton but try here.. Pilotshirts.com (Pilot House, Inc) - pilot uniform shirts, pilot supplies (http://www.pilotshirts.com)

I used to wear Van Heusen Aviator shirts which I think are fairly decent quality, although they are 65% poly and 35% cotton.

Pilot Shirts by Van Heusen (VanHeusen) (http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/Pilot_Shirts/)

Jim

[Gordy]

Prolly gonna upset you guys again and have Sasless give me another "talking to", but oh well...

Try This (http://www.pilotmall.com/product/Pilot-T-Shirt/clothing) or this.. (http://shop.cafepress.com/design/9875992)

[SASless]

Might as well order up your hat to go with the shirt too....

http://www.tallyhouniforms.com/images/pictures/baseball%20caps/caps/pilotbl.jpg

[Epiphany]

See if you can source the Royal Navy officer shirt - good quality soft cotton, short sleeves, epaulettes, pockets with no flaps etc. I bought 3 on Ebay years ago and they are still good as new.

[r44raven]

Not being as coy as SASless, I prefer this model
http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af68/stevebarnett100/helicap.jpg
:ok:

[SASless]

As I am retired from all this good fun....I will put on an auction of my "old" Pilot Shirts. I have hand tailored shirts from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, store bought versions from the USA, company issued from the UK, and a bunch that were bought from various soucks, bazaars, and flea sales along with some that I found on the road side or in rubbish bins. Alas, I cannot hock the ones I lost along the way (or the lovely Navy leather flying jacket donated to a girlfriend's husband very early one frosty morning on the north end of London). In time, I shall put forth an inventory, with a general discription of the item, and a minimum bid price.

Those from my S-58T days can be id'd by the spiffy pink stained left sleeve and shoulder, the Hughes 500 days attire are well worn canvas, wool, and chamios versions. The Chinook shirts are all Olive Green with concealed buttons or zips (one with tattered and charred sleeve ends) while the MBB line all have blood, burrito, and Beanee-Weanee stains. My middle east special blend shirts all feature whopping great gray patches beneath the arms. The regal Jet Ranger long sleeve versions all have a black ring about halfway up the forearms. Other shirts accumulated during many years of 212 flying appear to have been used as grease rags and are not suitable for VIP flights. Those purchased or supplied and replaced by the company as needed are all in relatively good shape, some still in the pristine clear cello wrapper while those purchased and maintained personally are worn, used, patcheds, rotten, and have terminal ring around the collar on the remaining fabric. The 500 shirts are of great use on safari, big game hunts, or lounging around a bush bar.

Look here for the auction hotline.

[Gordy]

SASless...will you autograph them too??? They may raise more moola...:)

[flyboy2]

Hi
Near to the Johannesburg airport-of-entry ( O.R.Tambo Int.) is Boundary Silk Bazaar, where they sell long or short -sleeve pilot shirts of fair quality.

At Lanseria Airport -north of Johannesburg( also a airport-of-entry) is The Pilot Shop, which sells pilot shirts,epaulettes & caps.

At a factory-excess shop my dear wife found inexpensively priced but top-quality "Arrow" brand shirts;with double-cuffs on the sleeves, which she modified to single-cuffs & from those cut-off's she made the epaulettes. Cut off the sleeves & you have plenty of material for epaulettes or a 2nd patch pocket.
:ok:

[princepilot]

What about Transair?

[hetrotrolleydolly]

Hi !
Dont mess about ,get OLYMP pilots shirts ,you can order online ,not the cheapest but fantastic quality,last ages and if you are passing through Cannes Madelieu they are available to buy there in the pilots shop .Enjoy !

[Red Wine]

Oh Sassy, send them over.

I do appreciate they would have to come as a IATA Dangerous Good Package.

With Armpit Yellow stains from all those dark dark night approaches and aborts from the Queens Palace or T’s Lounge in West Palm.

Not to mention the Spag dribbles when the feet were up and the poor lowly F/O was pushing the steed back home.

And the 48D waistline shape to catch all those dribbles..

Send them over old fella…..!!

[Troglodita]

Sas Old bean - you didn't by any chance leave some of the yellow armpit variety in Escravos during night stops did you?

That would explain where Peetah Storey found the ones he wore between 2001 and 2007!

They are probably still flying around Transvaal somewhere :yuk:!

Trog

p.s. Alouette - do you still wear your BB PILOThat with the Admiral scrambled egg?

[alouette]

Hey Trogs,

Are you feeling offended?:E

[Troglodita]

So who decided to make us wear a uniform which resembles the one a fixed wing pilot wears?


Alouette - not offended in the slightest - in fact fully agree with you about the shirts!

On the other hand I wonder where the unwritten convention originated whereby helicopter pilots in certain areas of the World seem to gravitate to becoming so attached to baseball caps (preferably with more adornments than a Far Eastern Head of State on walkabout (e.g. Marcos, Mahathir Mohamed, etc.)

It appears sometimes that surgical intervention would be required to remove these items of head gear as they are worn apparently 24 hours a day even when eating and possibly even sleeping!

This seems inextricably linked to the wearing of lots of gold bars and big watches as soon as they leave the Titusville circuit (sorry pattern!)

I didn't offend you I hope!

Trog :E

[Pandalet]

I see your silly hat and raise you... two silly hats!

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd140/alisonlloyd/conington_cropped.jpg

(not at all posed, of course)

[Epiphany]

Sweat stained vest, jeans and tatty RM Williams boots may be all the rage in the Northern Territory heliringer but I don't think my passengers would be terribly impressed if I turned up dressed like that. They know that I am a pilot as I wear white shirt and bars so I don't have to wear the greasy 'PILOT' baseball cap either alouette.

[alouette]

hey Trogs!!!

Never worn baseball caps with "scrambled" whatever...I don't know where that comes from?!? Don't you know me at all?!?:}

Anyways, why do I have to look like a poof when I work in an environment which makes you sweat like a pig, and the shirt/pants stick like chewing gum....brrrrrrrrr

[Epiphany]

Ouch alouette. You know how to hit where it hurts. I have always wanted to do real mans work in a hot sweaty place but this big poof and his white shirt will have to put up with waiting for his pax by a hotel pool next to the Mediterranean.

[alouette]

Nah well... :E

[Heliringer]

Epiphany,

I change my singlet every other day and it's the dry season here now so no sweat stains on my wife beater!

My point is White Pilot style shirts are just not practical in the Bush environment but I know not every pilot works in the GAFA.

Spot on with the jeans and RM's though:ok:

[Troglodita]

why do I have to look like a poof when I work in an environment which makes you sweat like a pig, and the shirt/pants stick like chewing gum....brrrrrrrrr


Sorry Alouette - I wasn't aware Chevron still insisted on their crews dressing like The Village People! I know you young chaps have to keep the old hairy backs like Slade entertained so far from home but this is really too much to expect.

pants stick like chewing gum

Perhaps a healthy spray of "trich" prior to laundering may remove the offending residue :eek:

Trog

p.s. maybe this calls for a parallel thread

PILOT SHREDDIES - WHERE CAN YOU BUY GOOD ONES FROM?

Maybe the ones worn for several weeks non-stop in Space by that Japanese Astronaut may work in Cabinda!

[alouette]

Hey Trogs,

Interesting thoughts... So you are telling me that you run around like a moist beaver.

So much for the entertainment there:E

[Troglodita]

Alouette,

Moist Beavers

AAAAhhhh - those cute furry little mammals - building their dams as the snow melts on the surrounding Rockies!

What a lovely mental picture on a hot sticky 45 degree Dubai evening.

Time for a gin!

Trog

[SASless]

No one....but no one.... would swap undies with Trogs! No telling what kind of creatures lurk in the seams of those things!

[Troglodita]

:{:{:{

Trog

(I now know why mine never get lost in the laundry!)