Wearing Bars?
 

Ok a bit of a fun topic :E Flying corporate jets we wear bars and white shirts but especially after the flight back on the train or in a restaurant its off with the bars.
Some places you need them and the uniform bit like in parts of Africa even on ferry flights where a uniform unlocks doors.
I have seen in the past pilots of light aircraft wearing bars and some seem to love it.
I did a ferry from India to UK with an Arab FO out at night in his homeland I was dressed in a tee shirt and jeans and he asked whether I minded him dressed up.
That included an admirals cap jacket and 4 stripes :ok: His chest puffed out and he adored the attention.

Who here admits to wearing a white shirt and bars and in what sized aircraft (C150) ??? and why? Or did you see any PPLs flying SEP dressed like that in your flying club ?

Reminds me a bit of the joke of the pilot trying to impress a girl who seeing a C130 Hercules land told the girl that see that aircraft its a C130. chest puffed out he told her he flew a C150 :E

Pace

There's a set of gold bars in the bottom of my flight bag somewhere.

I think that I've worn them twice ever - both times just to stand out usefully when doing some ferrying through foreign airports.

Rest of the time - they belong in an environment where pax want their drivers and cabin crew to look smart and official, because that's just what's done in that environment. Which is to say, not on my shoulders.


Worst gold bar abuse I've ever seen was the BAe PA31 ferry pilot from Warton who used to go into the mess at Boscombe Down in a blue sweater with four gold bars on his shoulder. Yes, I too mistook him for a Captain RN pilot until somebody quietly whispered in my ear to treat him like the bottom-of-the-ladder contract pilot he actually was.

G

Only twats wear bars etc in light aircraft. And they are usually crap pilots. I once went to Skeggy with such a pilot, he flying out, me back, and we were in a Beech Muskateer (a sort of Cherokee but by Beech). He wore a flying suit with all the trimmings. I wore a T shirt and jeans.

On arrival he lost sight of the runway on final and had to go around. Because of his 3-counties-size circuit he lost the runway again and went round again. We did this half a dozen times before he landed us, and by then quite a crowd had gathered to see what loon was attempting to land at their field. I and the back seat pax got out as he struggled to get out of his grow bag saying "I don't want them to know who was flying".

So as we walked towards the club house we positioned one each side of him, jabbing our pointing finger towards him.

I wore bars once, back in the early '80's, because I was the second pilot, and my Captain handed them to me, and said to wear them. He informed me that our passage through Africa would be easier that way, and it seemed to be. A few years back I dug them out of wherever they had been abandoned, and sewed them onto a Halloween costume for my daughter. 'Haven't seen them since.

The first flying school I worked for had 2 pages of A4 plus illustrations on how to wear the uniform, including the name badge, bars, tie, jacket, NATO pullover (all company supplied). You had to provide white shirts (2 front pockets and epaulettes) black trousers (with crease down the front) and shiny black shoes. We had to get permission from Head Office to remove the tie in hot weather. There was a strict pecking order for the number of stripes on the bars and their thickness. But then, they were paying me a salary plus bonus if I flew more than a certain amount per month.Then they went bust. Haven't worn a tie or bars since.

My old club used to give out wings with the club emblem (a Lapwing) in the middle when people got their PPL. There was only one bloke who actually sewed his on to a jacket (sniggers behind his back).
TOO

Gallery | Geoffrey Boot
There's this... He must be taking the piss though, surely?!

Jeans & wellies, remove hearing aids to wear the Icom hand-held's headset.
Summer often m/c gear sans helmet and thick gloves - if that's what I drove down in - or clapped out trainers and jeans again !

mike hallam.

Sadly no, he really does that.

G

When I owned a flight school / charter I used to take my sheltie with me in the twin , his name was Wilbur Wrong and he wore the four gold bars on his front legs as well as my airport security tag hanging off his collar, I pasted his picture over mine and re-laminated it.

Never had a problem with that set up as everyone just laughed at it.

Old Wilbur really looked the part of a pilot walking across the ramp all dressed up like a real pilot.

I've only worn them on flights through Africa. Made a big difference in ease of transit of most airports!

Never had any pretensions which would cause me to wear bars.

Must confess to having propped a few up though.

I have to confess to having most of Geoffrey Boot's attire, other than the bars. I hope that under a good coat it's not too obvious and equally fireproof.

Many moons ago a friend of mine was a relatively new hire pilot at Virgin, he was traveling home on the train sporting the whole bars and uniform outfit, as the train pulled into a station prior to his stop, a family who appeared to have just returned from a Spanish holiday proceeded to unload the kids, luggage sombreros and all the other crap they were bringing back onto the platform. They realized they had left a suitcase on board, so the mum in a panic shouted to the passengers remaining on the train to throw it off as the train was about to leave. Step up Mr. Take Charge, Super Hero pilot with bars and full pilot regalia to handle this emergency as only a guy like him could. He grabbed the case from where the others had been stored and threw it out onto the platform with seconds to spare before the doors closed. As he turned around to receive the anticipated admiring glances from the women and nods of approval from the guys an old man a few rows back said “Why have you thrown my case off the train”?

I only wear mine when flying a girl on a first date in our C172 shareoplane............. chicks love that stuff

When the CAA still had a regional office at Kidlington, a chum used to pop in to Brize now and again to do the odd instructor revalidation session on his way home.

The CAA's uniform was exactly the same as HMRC - and the flying club was right next to the Air Movements cargo hangar.....

One day my chum arrived in his CAA uniform with 4 gold bars - and the 'movers' went into a flat spin - scurrying around moving various boxes out into sheds etc. It was clear that they thought they were about to be rummaged by the Heathrow customs team.

He saw this and suggested that he'd better take his rank slides off next time. But we told him not to - the sight of him in his uniform would discourage any dubious activity amongst the movers.

Personally I think that people who have a problem about the wearing of insignia by others have more of a problem with themselves.

I sometimes fly my aeroplane to work, then get into a company aeroplane and head off on the day job. I have never lived down coming back from a week long trip, throwing everything in my own aeroplane and flying back home. Dismounting from a Condor outside the flying club dressed like a Bolivian admiral, carrying a suitcase, flight case and airline issue flasher mac brought howls of abuse from the bar. Apparently there are still photographs to be found......B:mad:s

SND

I like the bars on this clip!

Bars

There is that.

Two members of a syndicate I'm in both have "problems". One works as a flying instructor so is seen on the airfield in white shirt and bars. The other feels more comfortable in an ex-military nomex growbag.

I am a little tired of getting caught in the middle when they have stupid little spats about it.

That I don't wear bars, and sometimes but not always a Nomex suit is my personal choice: so are theirs. Why the heck these two can't calm down and just get on with the flying I have no idea.

G

Being an unmarked jeans and T-shirt pilot myself, I got my first surprise when I saw one of our very active PPLs taking his biennial checkride in a genuine-looking fighter pilot outfit - on a C-172. Unfortunately he crashed about a year later (1 serious + 3 minor injuries + 1 C-182 totalled), confirming that dressing and airmanship are unrelated things.

It's also hard to ignore the desire of a few friends of mine (low hour PPLs) to stand out from the crowd, so they wear club T-shirts and vests with personal name and "Pilot" stitched on well visible areas. Can't blame them: my wife is on the opinion that I am not a pilot (despite having a license stating that I am). For her, pilots are those guys, who wear the white shirt and the bars! :)

Or maybe it shows they are related?

as an office dweller last thing I want to do on my weekend is to wear shirts and ties.. however, I don't mind those who do. I have live and let live attitude about most things, except tracksuits and youth of today thinking it's a perfectly acceptable piece of clothing for every occasion... bwah :mad: :mad: schmucks

back to bars - I can see how those can be helpful psychologically when you're taking up your friends or family for the first time and they still are not sure whether to trust you or not. Perhaps it can also be beneficial for the pilot as well - when you look the part you must act the part so if one can perform a bit more professionally with bars on it's shoulders - I don't see anything wrong with that

Problem is, 123, that the sort who wear bars at a GA field outside those required to wear a uniform, are, in my experience, never much cop as pilots. It's almost as though they wear this stuff in compensation for that.

Those who are confident in the aeroplane, the 'good' pilots, generally don't feel the need to dress up in pretend airline pilot garb.

On a related note: It seems obvious that dressing up as an airline captain for flying a recreational plane is ridiculous, to most round here. I must allow I have never come across the phenomenon in my (modest) flying career, would it be one more UK-specific peculiarity? But I don't think so.

What I do see, occasionally, finding it equally ridiculous, is people wearing coveralls trying to look military style. One can more or less tolerate this from a warbird pilot, especially if done in style, complete with the white silken neckkerchief and all that. But for flying anything else it is just another kind of decorum. Anyone saying there's plenty of pockets in them? Cargo trousers have no less, and they do come in handy. True, though, the real stuff is made from fire-resistant cloth (Nomex, they call it?) - that is the one reason I have kept my big trap shut, as yet.

Opinions? Experiences?

I'm a fairly regular "growbag" wearer - sometimes for professional reasons, sometimes because I just choose to. Either the full suit, or just a jacket.

Why? Looks reasonably smart in my own eyes, pockets in the right places, keeps my street clothes clean of grease and mud, and in extremis - yes Nomex is extremely flame resistant, worn correctly.

Can't say I have a problem with it, would never say that somebody *should*, save in particular environments. Test flying and particularly first flights I almost invariably do, and that's an appropriate environment as an aeroplane that's never flown before has an above average risk of stuff going wrong. Similarly in work research aircraft full of semi-certified equipment with lots of wiggly amps all over the place - I value the flame retardance and have on occasion insisted that other people wear one. Also in an open cockpit, tends to let less drafts in than other forms of clothing.

Not necessary on a couple of hours trip in a 4 seat spamcan, and looks a bit stupid in the flying club bar - but can't say it worries me to see people wearing one. Just make sure that any badges on it you earned the right to wear !

G

The advantage of uniform
 

I was the flight engineer on flight cargo flight out of Detroit to Memphis one night and the following morning while waiting to check in at the hotel a lady guest the the hotel approaches the Captain and asks hin to carry her bags to her room.

Fast Eddie the captain and ever the gentleman politely picks up her bags and heads for the elevator ............ A few minutes later he returns and announces that the $ 15 tip will pay for his breakfast.

I guess being dressed up like a bellboy has its advantages !

Wearing airline-pilot style clothes strikes me as just silly, except maybe the African reason.

But a flight-suit... I agree with all Genghis says. Lots of zippable pockets in handy places, very handy when flying aerobatics. Doesn't matter if it gets oil/grease/dirt on it, if you have to squirm around under a wing trying to find a fuel drain or whatever.

I wear mine always for aerobatics. All the acro instructors I know wear one. For flying the 182... not really necessary.

Though it did once lead to an interesting conversation. Long story, I ended up having to take public transport home (a nightmare here) after an AOG incident with my plane following a flight in the Pitts. After 4 hours I finally got to my home town, and stopped to buy an ice cream. The oldish guy who owns the place said "Oh, you're a pilot"... and proceeded to tell me all about his time as an Instructor Pilot in the Iranian Air Force. I asked, did you ever fly in combat? "Oh yes, I shoot down many Iraqi planes".

And now he runs an ice-cream shop in Mountain View. Funny thing, destiny.

An equivalent phenomenon: there is a elderly man in my hometown who is to be seen round the harbour (capable of taking boats up to about 30 feet long) in full captain's regalia and smoking a pipe.

Grow bags are not at all the same as pretend airline captain regalia. I wore one for years flying the likes of the oily and cold and draughty Chipmunk or the Yak52, but without any un-earned badges sewn on!

But never, ever, in a spamcan! That's like wearing racing overalls to drive your Fiesta to the shops!

Also, thanks to Ebay, I spent less on my Nomex than I did on my usual pair of jeans. And I buy my jeans from the factory reject shop.

What sort of badges, apparently claiming great achievements, would be "unearned?"

So what's a man/woman/person/sentient-being to do if they need to drive their Fiesta to the race course, or in my case fly their 182 to the place where they fly the Pitts/whatever?

In that case, I suggest not giving a toss what some faceless bloke on the internet calling himself "Shaggy Sheep Driver" thinks! :ok: As mentioned earlier, those who feel the need to look down at people for what could be perfectly sensible clothes for the situation probably have a bit of a problem themselves...

Well, yes, to be honest I don't (give a toss).

Incidentally there's another side to wearing a flight suit... San Francisco's leading fetish wear shop, Mr S, sells them, the real thing from Gibson & Barnes, not some nasty Chinese substitute. So you never know what reaction you might get...

How did you find that out?

I'm glad I didn't look that up on the office computer!

I'm generally in the 'wearing bars unnecessarily is ludicrously pretentious' camp but your last sentence almost justifies it. Why treat him badly for being a contract pilot rather than a military officer?

Not even an air marshal or admiral outranks a civilian.

I got that beat Genghis. Back in my knocker days at Cornwall Finest Airbase, I spotted a knocker "mate" (Sergeant Aircrew for those that don't know the lingo) wandering up the main drag wearing bars and and scrambled egg hat - He had a PPL - and he actually took a salute from an airman wandering past.

Apart from being an utter tw@t thing to do, I'm pretty certain he could have been charged for impersonating an officer.

That was decades ago...a few years back his actual name appeared on here; somebody was checking him out for boasting about a fast jet background which they suspected he did not have (they were right).

Once a walt, always a walt, I guess.

Erm, travel in normal clothing and put on your Marlborough race suit or your ace of the base fighter pilot suit at your destination before jumping into your McLaren race car or F-16? Simples.

Dr Jeckyl - this was on a military station. In that working environment a Captain RN gets called Sir and is warranted various other formal courtesies

A civilian pilot, is called by his name and treated in a friendly and helpful manner. But he aint a senior officer within the military workplace

G

Looks like I need to sew some stripes and wings on my John Deere boilersuit !

From Wikipedia

Rank/insignia Epaulettes Wings
pre-solo student no stripes no wings
post-solo student one stripe wings
private pilot license holder pursuing commercial license two stripes wings
commercial pilot license holder pursuing instructor's rating or ATPL three stripes wings
flight instructor three stripes wings
chief flight instructor or examiner four stripes wings