What pilot jobs require a pilot uniform or flight helmet?

[happylanding]

Nothing wrong with the blue uniform, it's just that new hires would feel silly getting out of an old beat up Cherokee Arrow (the first A/C the company assigned) all dressed up and with captains bars
The brown/black shoe thing has something to do with US Naval Aviation I believe---I'm sure Panzerrat or any other Naval vet can answer that

I once flew from the caribbean island of St.Thomas to Virgin Gorda, BVI. And....the aircraft was a Piper (I think, since I was not yet a pilot) and a six seats (if there is a Piper six seats somewhere in the world, since even now I'm still incredibly bad at recognizion! shame on me! ). on board a CPT and his F/O, a woman, and they both wore the uniform with the stripes. but what I always remember is that, on the flight back to St.Thomas, two weeks later, the woman was still seating at the F/O seat but had earned the remaining stripe!  And when I asked her, she confirmed me she had become CPT!
But now, a question.....does it depend from company to company or to pass from F/O to CPT you have a fixed amount of hours to fly? how does it work?

[Gulfstream Driver]

The bird you were in could have been a Cherokee 6, a Seneca (twin engine) or something else.  Saratoga maybe?  I'm not sure how many seats are in a 'Toga.

A promotion from FO to Capt. is going to vary company to company.

[happylanding]

I looked at the picture of the Piper Cherokee 6 and it seems to me it was the one I flew with my family. the trim (that at time I ignored what it was!) was on the ceiling and it was made as a wheel (who was among you in here that could presume the year of a piper I had flewn by its trim when I posted my first picture?) , that's one of the things I remember well, but I could not check from the pics I've found. thanks for the hints!

[undatc]

Gulf, I flew the Cherokee 6 outta flight support last fall.  It was interesting.....

[Gulfstream Driver]

Gulf, I flew the Cherokee 6 outta flight support last fall.  It was interesting.....

Didn't know they had one there.  They've got all kinds of power, but they don't go much faster than a Warrior.  They'll carry anything you can get in the door, though.

[undatc]

yup, flew that and the arrow.  that was a fun day, we went down to Fargo, and then over to the moorhead fly in.  Got a good story about that, well kinda, not really.

[TheSoccerMom]

Hey, I never answered your original question, sorry.

We are required to wear a Nomex flightsuit for fire missions, and Nomex gloves, and leather boots.  It's all for fire resistance in case of a crash and burn situation.  It is hot and most people hate it;  but we do go slow enough (impact-wise) that fire protection is a good idea.  It didn't seem so bright when I flew faster airplanes on lead -- it didn't seem to make much sense if you were going to go into the granite at 150 knots.  But -- that's what we have to wear, for low-level work.

The jumpers wear suits, helmets, gloves and gear that adds 80 pounds to their body weight.   

It's not very comfortable on a hot day, when the inside of the airplane has been cooking on the ramp.  Our record on any ramp so far was 136 degrees F in Mesquite, Nevada.....  that was in the shade, under the airplane belly.  The irony is, usually in late September, we're trying to duck under snow squalls to get to the fires, and everyone's frozen solid.   

[fireflyr]

That's what's cool, literally, about Air Attack, the most I've ever had to wear my nomex was on a CDF CWN contract for 2 weeks and that was OK because the airport (FOT) is right on the coast so it was cool weather

You go that slow?  That's almost like the statement here that a Cub goes almost fast enough to kill you--HMMMM

[TheSoccerMom]

LUCKY YOU....  "cool" and "summer" don't tend to get used in the same sentence too often, as you well know!   

And, well, let me put it this way.....  if I have to pick between going into the rocks in the Baron, or the trusty old T. Otter, I know which one I'm picking!!!

                                                                                                           

[BrianGMFS]

if I have to pick between going into the rocks in the Baron, or the trusty old T. Otter, I know which one I'm picking!!!

Of course the Twotter..... Heck, the mountain would probably lose the fight   

Brian

[TheSoccerMom]

                        

Exactly, mon ami Brian!   Ha ha, at least there'd be a big DENT in the mountain.        

[chuckar101]

Good ol' Mesquite got to love it

[TheSoccerMom]

Yup, you gotta love it!   

Having only half a brain seems to help me!   

One good thing was the relatively low elevation there....  of course, that's why it got so hot!  Ahh, the desert's Catch-22!   

[Baradium]

Our company uniform is black shoes, black pants, black belt,  standard white shirt with tie and shoulder boards (stripes).  There is no company jacket or hat.  During summer you can only wear a hat while sitting in the cockpit (and that's so you can use one for sun protection).  During winter the rules are thrown out the window if you need something to stay warm.   If the only jacket you have that's warm enough for a given mission is bright pink, you can wear it... although I'd try to avoid getting in that spot!     Some captains wear some fairly colorful winter jackets or hats.  There's more than one captain with a sealskin hat, one of them is a spotted one so it looks like he's wearing a dalmation...

For winter I'm using black Danner boots with 600 grams of thinsulate,  black flannel lined carhardts and thermals under them with a carhardt jacket over my shirt (and occasionally a sweater under the jacket, but I only started adding that, periodically, since new year's).  Since I bought my winter gear after I got up here, I bought black clothing.  Last summer I used black Catterpillar steel toe boots with black Dickies work pants and started out taking my leather flight jacket on flights... that lasted for a few weeks and then I gave up on trying to avoid getting Jet A on it fueling airplanes and started wearing the carhardt jacket, once I bought it.   The jacket is midweight as well as everything else (excepting the boots).  I bought a set of midweight bib overalls and have a set of heavy thermals as well but never wore either one, even at -40 there was no need for them.  I have a black hat that covers my ears and apparently makes me look like some kid named mikey from some movie as well as some black gloves.  I also do keep a thick black military issue balaclava (face mask, goes all the way down my neck) in my bag and will use it in addition to or in liue of the hat if we go somewhere windy and it's cold enough.  I bought goggles too, but have only used them once or twice.

We actually don't officially have wings either, but one of the captains gets small batches made up at a time and I bought a set that I wear.

The part 135 guys' dress code is a little bit more lax and if you're on the freighter you can wear whatever civilian clothing you want.  During winter some guys from all the areas cheat and just wear a sweater and don't wear the shirt under it since no one can tell if it's there or not. 


I reckon that's probobly more detail than you had in mind, but there you go. 

[Panzerrat]

Thanks for all the answers, it was most informative, and funny about the Archer Captain 

Jim: What's wrong with a blue uniform?

Btw, while I'm at it, isn't it in aviation there's a difference between people with bronw and black shoes?

Frank

Nothing wrong with the blue uniform, it's just that new hires would feel silly getting out of an old beat up Cherokee Arrow (the first A/C the company assigned) all dressed up and with captains bars

The brown/black shoe thing has something to do with US Naval Aviation I believe---I'm sure Panzerrat or any other Naval vet can answer that

Sorry it took awhile to respond to this.

I haven't come across anything that actually states why the Naval Aviators wore the brown shoes.  I'm thinking the airdales wear brown shoes just to be different.  At one point during WWII, there were actual green dress uniforms that the wing-wipers could wear.  That uniform was phased out sometime after the war.  However, about ten years ago or so, they allowed the rest of the Naval community to wear Brown shoes if you were a CPO or higher.  Very few chiefs or above wore the brown shoes on Submarines.  We don't need silly brown shoes to prove our superiority.  We just have our dolphins.