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Pilot wear

What's a good store to order pilot wear? I'm looking for the real stuff (shirt, uniform) in good quality. Thanks!

What do you want it for?

If it is a one-off to impress, I think most pilot shops sell the cheap nylon stuff. Transair, near me, sell that. Pooleys sell the ceremonial swords, but they aren't cheap.

If it is to wear long-term then IMHO you want to get something better. I looked into this when considering doing the IR in Greece; at Egnatia (LGKV) the full uniform is mandatory and obviously one is likely to get really hot (and smelly ).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Professional pilot wear and a crew card badge are supposed to make things easier in Africa. I certainly wouldn't dare exiting a Cessna in a crew uniform in Europe, that would be too ridiculous

The best I've found so far is Oberhofer in Austria. Not cheap though. They want to know the pilot ID for order and claim it has to be CPL or ATPL.

They want to know the pilot ID for order and claim it has to be CPL or ATPL.

I have an FAA CPL so just tell me the sizes etc and I will get it for you. I take Paypal, cost plus 20%

That CPL cost me a lot of money... would be great to recover some of it

Which part of Africa? The Col Gaddafi outfit

may no longer be the best option directly south of Italy... but you might look good in the one on the right.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have an FAA CPL so just tell me the sizes etc and I will get it for you. I take Paypal, cost plus 20%

Thank you but I'm sure my ATPL from Uzbekistan which I've just photoshop'ed will do fine...

The question is indeed what outfit can be beneficial and at which level it starts to get ridiculous.

The question is indeed what outfit can be beneficial and at which level it starts to get ridiculous.

I think in a GA aircraft the transition level to ridiculousness is quite low!

EGTK Oxford

Hello!

Here in Germany, one of the best suppliers of professional attire is Münz (http://www.muenz.de/). Almost every company I worked for ordered their uniforms there. And the best pilot shirts can be ordered directly from the manufacturer Olymp: http://www.olymp.com/de/home.htm

Regards max

NB: Regarding ridicule: Dark blue trousers, a pilot shirt, a NATO-Sweater and a crew badge (you can make that one yourself, there are blank plastic cards available that are compatible with inkjet and laser printers) should be all you need anywhere in the world. Leave the epaulettes away (or don't remove the sweater!) and you can even wear that at home. I have been flying commercially like this for 15+ years (no tie, no epaulettes ever) and never had difficulties being recognized as a pilot. Only my current employer requires us to wear a "real" uniform (which I most often leave on board the aircraft - I still feel silly wearing it, because outside the aircraft I am not a pilot).

EDDS - Stuttgart

Never quite understood the whole pilot uniform thing.

All the uniformed pilots I've ever seen have tended to be wearing the nastiest polyester shirts imaginable.

Depending on their employer the jackets and trousers can sometimes be reasonable (although most are shapeless sacks of rubbish that no self-respecting gentleman would be seen dead in), but even the half-decent uniforms are usually ruined by horrible cheap rubber-soled shoes. I presume there is generally some operational requirement that mandates rubber soles as opposed to proper shoes.

And of course, nearly all pilots' uniforms commit the number one faux pas of men's formal wear - wearing a tie with a short-sleeved shirt. Urgh. Words cannot describe how bad it looks.

EGLM & EGTN

It's mostly an African / 3rd World thing.

Much easier to pass through airports that way.

The countries are mostly military-run and the people in these places fear and respect authority.

I've heard some hilarious stories e.g. a pilot (correctly dressed) pushing a trolley packed with avgas canisters through an airport, straight through security, etc.

Even at UK airports there used to be special "crew" entrances/exits which anybody in the pilot uniform could just walk through but they have now stopped all that

In Europe, it also used to be much easier to get "commercial" (i.e. duty free) avgas if you wore a uniform. It is mostly before my time but Barcelona (El Prat) was known for it. You could recover the cost of a uniform on just one fill.

Personally, I would not wear it in flight (uncomfortable) but would put it on shortly before landing.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

wearing a tie with a short-sleeved shirt. Urgh

Fully subscribe that!

That being said, as a microlight pilot I would even feel ridiculous in the kind of (c?)overall's one sees acro pilots commonly wearing. While these do have the important feature of an endless series of pockets, I get told their real advantage is in the flame retardant (or -resistant) stuff they are made of.

For me it is simply jeans (past their first youth) and a tee-shirt, and in cold weather a wood-chopper's flannel shirt on top. If I were to turn up at the airfield wearing a tie, people would be most surprised - though I do wear a tie casually at the office. Were I to actually take off with such an attire, they'd be laughing their heads off for the next century - and rightly too! Even (or perhaps only more so) if it were accompanied with the proper long-sleeved popeline shirt, well-ironed woollen trousers and velvet waistcoat.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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