Shirts, Ties and Epaulettes
 

No, stop laughing please. :)

We sit there with our Transair catalogues or whatever, flicking through and then getting to that page thinking: "Does anyone really do this?".

I've seen the odd person in black trousers and white shirt, but has anyone in the PPL world seen (cringe) the full regalia?

saw a Jap bloke at Long Beach once, with nice blue overalls with 'Pilot' embroidered on it.

Apparently the same bloke was back a week later trying to learn to fly helo's, this time though he had 'Helicopter Pilot' on his overalls !

:D :D :confused:
EA

Paulo

Something tells me YOU want to wear all that regalia, and you are testing the water for a likely reaction !!!!!!!!! ;) ;) ;)

Earn it!
 

As with anything in this world you earn the right to wear it!

Students/ppl's wearing this full regalia are just making a mockery of the whole system! It's like those schools that make their students wear it and they add a bar for each rating/licence!!!!!

Nothing like a three/four bar getting out of a 152/172 etc :o

Paulo,

Search the web... find sites that talk about around-the-world flights.. you'll find out ;)

Oh blimey I've been found out. :D


Hmm, now where did I put the four bars

PS Did I forget to tell anyone I'm a pilot? :) :) :)

Yes! I actually saw some blokes at the PFA Rally on Friday in black trousers and white shirts with epaulettes! One 4-bar, several 3-bar and one 2-bar.

I didn't see what they were flying, but there were no airliners there that I could see.

Didn't see any pilots in Babygros, though.

Friend of mine who's flown in Africa says it's important to wear epaulettes there. Doesn't seem to have the same effect at Popham or Cranfield.

I didn't see what they were flying, but there were no airliners there that I could see.

Thank God - they wouldn't be safe!

Epaulettes mean jack when it comes to flying airliners. You wanna fly the big planes, you need shiny shoes :D :D

Keef -

Probably the stripe bearing folk at the PFA rally would be Cabair instructors as they, like many other flying schools, wear the tribal markings. It may look odd to those of us already involved in aviation at some level to see someone covered in gold braid jumping in and out of a C150 but in actual fact the punters love it. Take the Cabair schools around London, all their instructors look smart and utterly professional and the public love it.

Back to the original thread though, I have heard several stories about PPLs wearing stripes to take their mates on an hour long sortie into the local area. I know of one who was wearing 4 gold bars and taken aside by a CFI and politely shown the error of his ways. (Nothing to do with the fact the CFI only wore 3 bars!!) The one that takes the glory is the bloke who upon the issue of his PPL had his chequebook and credit cards changed to 'Captain' instead of Mr!!

I also witnessed 4 people getting out of a cherokee all wearing flying suits the other day as well. Yes, even the 2 back seat passengers! What are these people on????

Amazing isn't it!

RM

FUMES - if their departure was within weight and balance.

Whilst not defending these muppets (once saw a guy clamber out of a cherokee - Liverpool, I think - wearing a RED flying suit covered in Red Arrows patches)...they just might be playing the old fireproof card.

I think equally sad is the wearing of white leather gloves.

True story time....
Years and years ago in a country far away (France Le Bourget 1990-ish) at THE airshow I ran into an vague friend.
He wore a mil.flightsuit with all the badges.
I knew he had a ppl and his own single engine something.
Asked him how he got there.The reply was ..' I flew in on Bravo Mike Whiskey..'.
Took me a little while to figure out he meant his BMW 316.
He was not amused that I showed up to burst his bubble since he was talking to somebody who apperently bought this crap..
:D :D :D

I know of one who was wearing 4 gold bars and taken aside by a CFI and politely shown the error of his ways. (Nothing to do with the fact the CFI only wore 3 bars!!)

Well, both of them are tossers to be wearing stripes, but IMO they both have the right to wear anything that doesn't compromise safety.

I don't think an employee has any business telling a paying customer what to wear. The CFI should be taken aside and politely shown the error of his ways

years ago in California I went for a hot-air balloon flight. I couldn't believe it when the pilots showed up wearing dark blue pants, not jeans, short sleeved white shirts with golden stripes on the shoulders!! how decadent!! sorry...but being a balloon pilot myself I thought it pretty stupid.
But the paying passengers seemed to love it! I guess it makes them feel they're in "professional" hands, though what I saw during the set up of the 8 balloons I did not find very professional!
I've worn the usually flight suit with patches and pins, that's tradition in the balloonist world and fun, besides being very practical, and for plane competions I might wear it, too, but not during normal PPL flights. Don't need the snickers of my fellow flyiers..heehee
And just check-out some of your fellow PPL'er visiting cards...great! :rolleyes:

keep flying!!

WestWind1950

Gone West

Would be interested in alternative suggestions to gloves for those of us who suffer from sweaty palms! Having once had the yoke slip out of my hand on final, I have worn gloves since, although they are slightly inconvenient when changing frequencies etc.

However, as for epaulettes etc :D :D :D :D :D

Another true story ....

Yesterday, I & another woman PPL, flew to Cambridge. We were both wearing OUR usual pilots' "uniforms" of tee-shirt & jeans (& of course hand-bags :D )

This proved useful, when we did our interpretation of Cambridge's Park & Ride service......

..... Well we did PARK the aircraft at the airport, walked the 200m to the Park & Ride carpark, mingled with the shoppers, & caught a RIDE on the bus into central Cambridge, for the bargain price of £1.40 return. (You can now do the same at Norwich).

I am not sure that we would have passed off, as shoppers, in flying suits with 4 gold bars! :D :D :D

Distaff Beancounter

The Norwich P&R system is super. As one who works in Norwich I frequently make use of it. Home to office is about 25-40mins dependant upon traffic/school children/lolly-pop folk.

Home to Norwich is about 5 or 6 mins in the twin-winged pocket rocket and then another 15 mins on the bus to the city centre!

It really is great if you intend going somewhere in the aeroplane after work or for work!

I saw the Cabair crowd on Friday, too. In fact had a quiet word with a couple of them who were prodding the fabric on my aeroplane. Obviously Cabair uses aluminium aeroplanes as they've wasted all the fabric material on the studes!

I wear a flying suit, helmet, white gloves and a parachute in my aerobatic biplane. The flying suit because all the pockets zip up and I don't distribute the contents of my pockets down the back end. The suit is also Nomex'd which is a small comfort.

In my vintage taildragger, I tend to wear shorts and shirt and can not imagine dressing up to go for a tootle in that!


Stik

This from someone who was/is unhappy with uk ga....

Taken from this thread..... Unhappy.........

Well, this thread has got to two pages in a day, so it's obvious what everyone's interests really are. :D

Just has a thought though. When a woman gets out of a helicopter, people look around for the pilot. So maybe if I had black trousers, tie, four stripes, white gloves, shiny shoes, badge saying Helicopter Pilot...nah, they'd still ask me in amazement: "Oh, do you fly helicopters?" :confused:

Final 3 Greens, the only thing that I can suggest is some sailing gloves from someone like Musto. They are fingerless so you can easily tune dials and fiddle with things and they breathe as well, so your sweaty mitts can dry off.

I use these ones for sailing but I haven't tried them for flying as I don't have sweaty mitts.....

http://www.musto.co.uk/media/images/407.gif

Hey - if the gloves, or the shirt, the tie, the bars etc. are for "medical" reasons (for want of a better word) that's fine.

If the gloves (especially) are to make someone feel like a fighter pilot, that is sad.

Slightly different tack (get the sailing gloves [ho ho]) - I'd be curious to know, for the purposes of this thread where the dividing line comes between "general aviation" and whatever level you wish to put above it.

Would an air taxi operation in, say, a Seneca, come under "general aviation" or not?? Should that Seneca pilot wear bars whilst carrying pasengers - but not whilst flying the same airframe at the weekend on a jolly??