I'd rather be dressed in Tshirt and a smart pair of jeans so when they're looking for someone else to blame it on I can merge with the onlookers.

Fireflybob - You'd never merge with onlookers and rubber-neckers wearing gear like that.
You'd really need a T-shirt full of expletives and obscenities, a hoodie, a pair of shorts that reached past your knees - with the crotch just above the knees - and a pair of outsize fluoro sneakers that haven't been cleaned in 2 years. :)

There are also benefits to wearing a uniform I knew of one now retired corporate jet captain who on having positioned a jet and then getting a scheduled flight back would milk the uniform for all it was worth jumping security line checks by walking to the front where other PAX were happy to let him pass!
On a long distance flight some years back he would sit in cattle class and often talk himself into an upgrade to save the airline the shear embarrassment of having him attired like that!
Short haul he still sat in uniform and claimed that on one occasion getting admiring attention from the surrounding PAX was told on descent " don't you think you should go up front now " ?

Pace

Probably because it's mainly the domain of "rank amateurs".

Some of us have to wear them as its expected but I know once out of the airport environment its an embarrassment. As soon as the bars are removed you are probably mistaken for a bus driver anyway)

Personally I prefer the Silver bars to Gold as they are not so much in your face and colour blend better with the black and white everything.

What I don't fully understand is the mentality of the PPL wearing a uniform whether flying a single or piston twin? Is it an ego ride or to give the appearance of professionalism.

I can understand instructors in flight schools doing so or even students on career chosen paths wearing two bars as it will be part of an attitude path towards their chosen career but the PPL ?? NO

Private jets yes as its part of attention to detail and I know one outfit where the pilots wore designer suits which were specially made including the bars as part of the design but that was because of the image the company wanted to display

maybe certain PPLs want to display an image :E

Pace

Why is it an embarrassment?

Quote:
On the subject of bars and gold braid, there is a rule at White Waltham that anyone who rocks up at the bar wearing the aforementioned, has to buy a round of drinks for everyone there. I think that there is an exemption for the BBMF pilots when they drop in for fuel....
Probably because it's mainly the domain of "rank amateurs".

I can only assume that you have never been to White Waltham, because if you had you would know that it has an extremely high proportion of commercial pilots who fly for fun from there, and who turn up direct from work for a relaxing drink in the bar.

That is the main reason for the discouragement of gold braid and scrambled egg - you're not at work now; not even the flying instructors wear bars at EGLM.

Just imagine the attention you get sitting on the train back sporting a pilot uniform and 4 bars.

I wear a uniform because its expected but once out of the airport environment standing at a bar or on the train its no longer required and then becomes a statement :E
if your the sort that likes that attention fine ;)

Pace

Do you think you'll get anymore attention than the nurse in her scrubs, the squaddie in his camo kit, the cop in his uniform or the bin man in his overalls sitting on a train?

It's just a working uniform like any other. You're not anything special just because you wear one.

Chesty Morgan I agree with your comments as not being special but from past experience from "some" quarters you can be seen as special over other uniformed professions and will encourage unwanted discussion from " what do you fly"to someone moaning about their last flight on Ryanair, or telling you they get really scared when the aircraft bucks in turbulence. If you want peace and quite take off the bars and look like a bus driver :ok: Or tell them you work for a stripogram company and out on a job ))

Pace

Chesty, your assumption is incorrect. I see no reason why a pilot landing at any airfield on a commercial job should be ostracised by a PPL just because he wears uniform as required by his employer.

However, I always choose to remove the bars from my woolly pully and my company tie as soon as the aircraft is tucked away back in the company hangar.

I have also seen some ridiculous examples of wearing inappropriate regalia. In particular, one chap obtained his PPL on Cessna 152s at one airfield then almost immediately joined a group owning a JP3A at a different one. He then took to turning up back at his old club, sporting an RAF Nomex flying suit with RAF style wings badge, the name "Jet Pilot" embroidered beneath AND still wearing a pair of leg restraints! He used to swagger about in the bar with the buckles click-clacking together. One day he butted into a conversation I was having and began telling us all about his brave exploits in the JP. My friend mentioned to him that I used to fly them for a living; he avoided me after that. ;)

I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Armstrong years ago and found him to be a very quiet man who talked to you as an equal aviator even though his achievements and abilities were galactic in comparison.

Really good pilots don't need trumpet blowing us lesser mortals sometimes do ;)

Pace

BIL, now recently retired, was a senior police officer who often used to travel by train to work. He would always cover his uniform jacket, badges and rank insignia with a large plain jacket.
He reckoned he didn't need to advertise who he was, when he was just an ordinary member of the travelling public.
Mind you, when someone made a nuisance of themselves on the train, he didn't take long to advertise who and what he actually was, via removal of the all-encompassing plain jacket. :)

My mate was a BA captain (latterly on long haul) and hated wearing uniform. First to go were the bars, then the tie. He once strolled back from his 747 LH seat into the cabin tie-less and bar-less and someone asked him for a refill of their G&T, which he happily arranged with the hostie!

Seems to me the people who have to wear them don't constantly bang on about it.

What's G&T? Not Go and Touch, I presume, that would be hard to refill.. ;)

Gin & Tonic, Jan. Very British Empire, don't y'know.

;) no I didn't. There's no end to learning, apparently. And to say there are those who claim English is easy to learn, for a foreigner ... :( Perhaps this consistently inconsistent use of abbreviations and acronyms is a kind of instinctive self-defense on the British side. Actually, I've heard of schemes that made less sense.

Neither do I. Wrong chap perhaps?

When I am being paid to fly I'll wear whatever my employer tells me to wear.

When I am paying to fly I'll wear whatever I wish. (jeans, shirt and some, frankly dodgy, old deck shoes normally.)

Same goes for everyone else. Wear what you feel comfortable in.