Sim recurrent training : In uniform or not ?
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I’ve been with carriers who do both. I much prefer no uniform. I have never once thought about what the other guy/girl wears.
Oh, he wears a uniform so I must be in the real aircraft? Nope, I know where I am.
If I have to pick up or deliver an empty aircraft, I wear normal clothes as well. Unless the place I fly to or from is some weird place where a uniform will help you get to or from the aircraft.
Oh, he wears a uniform so I must be in the real aircraft? Nope, I know where I am.
If I have to pick up or deliver an empty aircraft, I wear normal clothes as well. Unless the place I fly to or from is some weird place where a uniform will help you get to or from the aircraft.
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I see the argument for getting into the right frame of mind for the sim. Although, the one time I got dressed up for the sim, my performance was poorer than usual. We do business casual for sim here. Also allowed to wear business casual if operating non-revenue flights, which I’ve done several times. Didn’t affect my performance.
AirNZ Regional... "basic" uniform in the sim (don't need the jacket or the hat etc). They're rostered work days... can't say it really bothers me one way or the other, saves me 5 minutes in the morning trying to figure out what I'm going to wear I guess... plus I know where my pen is!
Only exception was the initial type rating (which was completed in another country), chinos and a collared shirt... was not a "rule" as such, more that I think the Sim Instructor couldn't be arsed with uniform and none of the other outfits using that sim centre seemed to wear uniform
Only exception was the initial type rating (which was completed in another country), chinos and a collared shirt... was not a "rule" as such, more that I think the Sim Instructor couldn't be arsed with uniform and none of the other outfits using that sim centre seemed to wear uniform
Have worked for a company where sims were chinos and collared shirt or similar and now working for one where it is basic uniform (Air NZ). My personal hierarchy of clothing comfort, from most comfortable to least, is jeans and t-shirt, work uniform, chinos and shirt, suit. So, if I can’t wear jeans and t-shirt, I’d rather wear uniform. I also like having my pen in the usual spot on my shirt.
In Cathay Pacific (aka Cathay Pathetic Airways) uniforms for simulators was required - but then again what would you expect from a draconian outfit. I thought this was more of a Pommy thing - it´s hard to believe the Frenchies are going to implement such a concept in their training. To make it more realistic is mentioned a few times. It´s a simulator - it´s not an airplane - wearing a clown outfit won´t change that fact. It´s a training tool. You´re there for training and hopefully to learn something new or be reminded of something you forgot. Line checking is where you where your uniform, check the notams, call the weather man, ask for your tea and biscuits etc..
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It was the weeks before Christmas, the eerie breeze wafting through echo chambers of offices, long deserted by the swarms of HR and IR practitioners.
The departed contributing exactly as much to operating revenue and amenity in their absence as they do when they sit at desks: Zero. Dreaming up more schemes, buzzwords and crap to occupy their otherwise useless lives is seen as value adding.
The problem with this thread is somewhere, in some nearly completely vacant Waterside, Coward street or Cathay Pacific City some HR zealot read this thread.
Next time a pilot has their job on the line in a recurrent simulator, their head filled with sequences, recall checklists and quiz knowledge, there will be some d*ckhead with a clipboard checking adherence to uniform standards.
The departed contributing exactly as much to operating revenue and amenity in their absence as they do when they sit at desks: Zero. Dreaming up more schemes, buzzwords and crap to occupy their otherwise useless lives is seen as value adding.
The problem with this thread is somewhere, in some nearly completely vacant Waterside, Coward street or Cathay Pacific City some HR zealot read this thread.
Next time a pilot has their job on the line in a recurrent simulator, their head filled with sequences, recall checklists and quiz knowledge, there will be some d*ckhead with a clipboard checking adherence to uniform standards.
In Cathay Pacific (aka Cathay Pathetic Airways) uniforms for simulators was required - but then again what would you expect from a draconian outfit. I thought this was more of a Pommy thing - it´s hard to believe the Frenchies are going to implement such a concept in their training. To make it more realistic is mentioned a few times. It´s a simulator - it´s not an airplane - wearing a clown outfit won´t change that fact. It´s a training tool. You´re there for training and hopefully to learn something new or be reminded of something you forgot. Line checking is where you where your uniform, check the notams, call the weather man, ask for your tea and biscuits etc..
I don’t care what I’m wearing, I still know I’m in the Sim and if I’d need 4 stripes on my shoulder to fly a Jet then heaven help us.....
What a crock of s***
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I go with the idea that in uniform, the simulation is complete. Mate of mine flew with an outfit (pardon the pun) that demanded uniforms and even memo'd staff that "we are not a Jeans & T-shirt Company". All checked out and into the real world, they then called themselves..........Jetset............! Went along with the shell suit brigade they carried, I guess .
Mmmmm PPruuune!
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One uses common sense. We are grown ups after all.
We get paid slightly more than the minimum wage so if that's what the Company wants that's what they get! Besides in a normal civvy shirt I have no epaulettes to tuck the headset cable under!!
There are Bigger things to whinge about
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Never worn a uniform in any sim (or a hat in any airline... I've somehow luckily managed to dodge that one) and I also do a lot of empty aircraft positioning / ferry-flight sectors and those too are always flown in civvies. I only ever wear the uniform when pax are onboard... though it's not as if the pax even see me, i.e. flight deck visits were long since banned, pilots walking about in the cabin is frowned upon and, if / when I decide to go for a crap, a curtain is drawn so the pax can't see the flight-deck door being opened and me going in or out of the thunder closet... indeed I could be sitting in the flight-deck in the buff (all be that not a pretty sight, wherein my svelte years are long behind me) and the pax would be none the wiser... uhm, thinking of that, I do know a bloke whom has 4 stripes (in the style of epaulets) tattooed on each shoulder but that's another story.
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Like I said earlier, I think you're going in for full overkill here.
The employer hires an employee, and requires the employee to wear a uniform during work hours, and pays him for it.
There's really not any more to it.
If there's some big thinking behind it, or other parts of the company doesn't wear uniforms, doesn't really matter. If the leadership is braindead or not, they still pay for those 8 hours a day.
If the employee want to change it, it can be done through normal negotiations, until then the employer has the right to decide during work hours.
Oh yeah.... and you get free clothes
The employer hires an employee, and requires the employee to wear a uniform during work hours, and pays him for it.
There's really not any more to it.
If there's some big thinking behind it, or other parts of the company doesn't wear uniforms, doesn't really matter. If the leadership is braindead or not, they still pay for those 8 hours a day.
If the employee want to change it, it can be done through normal negotiations, until then the employer has the right to decide during work hours.
Oh yeah.... and you get free clothes
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We mandated the wearing of uniforms when we went ATQP a few years ago. All sim trainees are expected to wear uniform. Even before that I always wore a work shirt in the sim, so that I could find my pen easily
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I remember about 18 years ago flying for an airline that mandated uniforms in the sim and we were in the coffee room during a break at the sim centre in the USA. It was two captains being checked together with the TRE. An American pilot walked in and jokingly shielded his eyes from the glare from the 24 gold bars that were 'dazzling' him!
An airline that I flew for a while before that only required uniforms for passenger-carrying flights. I read a delightfully entertaining article by a pilot who had arrived in a jet airliner on stand at one of London's big airports and the two of them needed to be back in the crew-room quite soon so they left the aeroplane and 'legged it' across the apron in jeans and T-shirts with only their headsets in hand (before the days of tight rules on yellow jacket and locked up aeroplanes) and he glanced up to see astounded looks from passengers looking down from the terminal having seen a jet airliner shut down on stand then two 'shady' characters run away from it! He was one of the Best of pilots too!!
An airline that I flew for a while before that only required uniforms for passenger-carrying flights. I read a delightfully entertaining article by a pilot who had arrived in a jet airliner on stand at one of London's big airports and the two of them needed to be back in the crew-room quite soon so they left the aeroplane and 'legged it' across the apron in jeans and T-shirts with only their headsets in hand (before the days of tight rules on yellow jacket and locked up aeroplanes) and he glanced up to see astounded looks from passengers looking down from the terminal having seen a jet airliner shut down on stand then two 'shady' characters run away from it! He was one of the Best of pilots too!!
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When I was flying in the US I never wore a uniform to the sim. I have been in Japan the last 10 years and we have worn uniforms the entire time for sim events once we were checked to the line. I really don't mind it. Helps me simplify my packing for trips.