Leather flying jackets
 

With winter upon on us I was considering buying a leather flying jacket.
However would I look like a bit of a knob walking around my local club wearing a military type flying jacket???

Any thoughts or views?

Don't you have a jacket/coat from last winter ? :E

Epaulettes, large watches, raybans and leather jackets .... well... you said the words....

Take the £100. Put it into a savings account. Next time you have the same silly idea, do the same thing. Rinse and repeat. :cool:

Next thing you know, you'll be dressing up like the below, only to go sit for a couple of hours in a spam can pottering around at Mach 0.01 .....

http://www.flightgear.dk/pic/eurofight_pilots.jpg

Depends whether you want to be fashion conscious or warm!

I wear one, not because I want to be seen as an aviation hero, but because I don't have a cockpit heater and those leather jackets with a sheep on the inside are toasty! :ok:

It all depends. If you go in a plane with a heater, it'll give you a weirdo touch. If you go in an open biplane, it is the only way to survive without freezing ;-). I give a **** what other think and use my Vintage Collection Lufthansa Aviation leather jacket quite often in winter.

I've used Flightstore for various aviation articles..

These look OK

Leather and Sheepskin Flight Jackets at Flightstore

I think I'd go so far as to say that you wouldn't look like a bit of a knob...


...you'd be one!


Don't do it, please.

Yup.

Unless, you're flying an aircraft type which requires that you wear the leather flying jacket. If this is the case, go and stand beside it, and you'll look great - otherwise, no leather flying jacket or epaulets, until your employer asks you to wear them, and keep the watch to something modest.

Interestingly, WestJet Airlines, here in Canada do issue their pilots very nice leather flying jackets. I think it's an "out west" thing....

I have an old Cooper A2 jacket. The present Mrs R1 bought it as a present over 20 years ago. Don't care if I look a knob, it gets me in the mood to fly, I've had it a long time and it's comfy.

What a bunch of conformists here.
Real knobs are those who care more about what others think of them than what they really like/want. Real knobs comply with groupthink.

Those who wear what they like and don't give a s**t about what everyone else thinks may display poor taste, but at least they're not knobs.

B. (known to have poor taste)

Absolutely. But then they would not be seeking opinions on the forum either ;)

Those who wear what they like and don't give a s**t about what everyone else thinks may display poor taste, but at least they're not knobs.

Ah fine, but that sort of meta-level thinking is totally lost on anybody but the wearer. I mean how does anybody else know the difference between "I'm wearing this to conform to some image of a pilot I want to fantasize about", on the on hand, and "I'm wearing this cos I like it, and screw you"?


Really, don't do it - you will be misunderstood and it won't turn out well...

Well, I think they look pretty darned sexy....

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...natoWalker.jpg

I thought Susannah Yorke looked mighty fine in one (and little else) in the Battle of Britain :-)

Hubba Hubba!

:{
Surely if you don't care what other people think, then... err.. you don't care what other people think.
Yes it's lost on everybody else, but that's the whole point. :ugh:

:confused:
What is the worst that could happen? That some people think the OP has made a poor choice of clothing? People who judge you solely on your choice of clothing really are exactly the people you really do not care about.:E

Now, if the argument went like: "in a closed cockpit in a modern plane, they will probably be too warm, and the thick lambswool lining make them cumbersome and may impede your movement" then at least that's an argument.

Step Turn's response is the most sensible - if they ask for advice on an internet forum they probably do care what other people think. But that will not stop me from showing him (or her) the error of his (or her) ways. Stand up for what you believe in and sod everyone else.

Nothing is more impressive (sexy, if you want) than someone who carries off what may be questionable clothing by the power/charisma of their personality ;) You make your clothes - they do not make you:ok:

B. (happy and comfortable with my own weirdness)

Sorry, no. Girl ATA pilots getting into a Spitfire in WWII can wear a genuine leather flying jacket and look sexy. 21st century posers getting into a spamcan in a leather jacket are complete to55ers. If you don't mind being a complete to55er (not just looking like one, note) that's fine by me.

They are popular as presents at xmas so secondhand ones fetch silly money from November.I was tempted to get one last year, my girlfriend and i often go to a "gay" pub in Brighton which does one of the best value quality sunday roasts to be had anywhere within ten miles of Brighton.
On the table next to us were three guys all wearing flying jackets one even had a handlebar moustache but they were all so overweight they would have had trouble climbing on a bus let alone getting into an aircraft.It sort of put me off buying one.
Kindly note im not homophobic nor unsympathetic to obesity problems it was simply my observation but wearing a handlebar moustache........

I bought one this summer in a Lakeland sale - half price. Never worn it in an aeroplane (it'd have got all oily pre-flighting the Chippy anyway, where old jeans and a holy jersey or oily sweat shirt were de rigueur!) but it's great for riding my motorbikes now the heat of summer has gone! :ok:

Amen to that ...

I'm more comfort and self image, and sod what anybody else thinks. Plus I fly open cockpit anyhow.


Various copies of WW2 jackets are available, they're a joy to own and wear, apart from the minor point that they really don't have enough pockets. They do need oiling once or twice a year (and usually within a month of buying them) with a suitable leather cream, or the leather loses all the properties you want of it. If you want one, buy one - just don't expect them to add anything to your credibility in a PA28 !

RAF Mk.3 cold weather jackets are very very green, scruffy as heck, but incredibly comfortable and practical. You can buy them on eBay from anything above £40. For actual practicality, they are the best thing you'll ever find.

G

The military, and rather extreme civil ops have a knack for creating really effective work wear. Yes, I have been laughed at, when disembarking a C 180 floatplane I was flying, wearing a full orange floater suit - but it was November, and the water temperature was 3C. These days, I wear a full immersion suit up to the waist, for winter water flying - I've got the suit, so why not? But I don't drive to the airport in it.

I don't own a leather flying jacket (I'm not known for style - Genghis can attest). Even when I flew the Tiger Moth in December, just my old sweatshirt - the one with oil on it already - over street clothes (I cheated, it had a canopy). But, were I to have owned a leather flying jacket, and be taking the Moth to make an "entrance", I woulda worn the jacket!

When I test flew the DA-42 for Diamond, they handed me a really cool set of pilot coveralls, with the instruction to wear. So I complied. Normally, I just wear cotton bluejeans, and cotton or wool shirts - I am fire conscious when I fly. I always wear a lifejacket (unless immersion suit) while flying off the water, and yes, you'll see me walking around in it, if I'm near water flying.

If you're gonna wear the leather jacket, you'll really have to do it up right, and wear the leather helmet too (you can just carry it around indoors - but you can't put it down, other than on the dispatch counter). But try to at least walk past a parked Tiger Moth (or similar type) so it looks like you really need the jacket. ;). If you need the jacket in the type you fly, wear the jacket. If you wear the jacket in the 172 'cause the heater does not work - forget the jacket, and get the heater fixed!

If you dress to impress, you're gonna have to rise to the standard of your image. I love to walk up to the group of kids in the mall wearing jackets with wings, and ask if they are pilots. They seem to usually look at each other, before they find words to reply. I'm also a firefighter - 20 years. I get pretty miffed when I see people wearing fire department T shirts - when they have not earned the privilege of being identified as a firefighter.

Myself, I just would rather blend into the casual crowd, and not have to live up to the image that my apparel might convey...