Coats

FlyChicaga said:
Business professionals wear wool overcoats, single breasted, over their nice tailored suits. Not a faded POS London Fog double breasted monstrosity over a polyester blazer, a short-sleeve dress shirt, and a faded zip-up tie.

Business professionals also hang their overcoats up on a nice coat tree, or in a closet. Not draped on a hook behind a cockpit seat, or stuffed in an overhead bin.

I'd also imagine business professionals don't deal with glycol, oil, hydraulic fluid, or the myriad of other things our uniforms are exposed to.

I dress professionally, yet functionally for my position. I don't work in an office. I fly airplanes.
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Just cause Wal-Mart sells a black overcoat for $50 and you wear if with your uniform, doesn't mean that you HAVE to purchase it versus perhaps spending more - perhaps much more - on a high quality overcoat you can wear with your work suit or your other suit attire.

Find a high quality overcoat that isn't two feet too long, tailor it, and you'll look damn sharp when properly coupled with one's black/navy uniform.

I don't think anyone is saying visit Brooks Brothers or JoS A Bank, at least directly, but one can find a good quality overcoat that - with a little tailoring - looks damn sharp.
 
Burlington Coat Factory and Marshall's are good places to find decent quality overcoats that won't break the bank.
 
This is why I have all 3...blazer, leather, and trench. Uniform allowances work good like that :) It's nice to have options. Granted I'm too fat for my leather jacket right now, darnit. Back to the treadmill.....
 
I have a nice Carhartt coat with plenty of insulation. It goes nicely with my well worn baseball cap, faded Dickies work pants, and Wolverine workboots.

My passengers haven't complained once. Thank GOD I fly boxes.



Alex, IMHO a "military" style leather jacket over a pilot uniform shirt is both stylish and functional. It says "I'm a pilot, not a lawyer".
 
Carhartt makes fantastic coats. They're all I wore for a good solid 10 years, and if you're tossing boxes there isn't anything better.
 
Leather jackets are miserable professional attire. I'm a professional airline pilot therefore I go old school with the blazer, overcoat, and GASP even the hat...which is optional at my company.

Every time I see an airline pilot in a leather jacket I wonder how they decide between driving their motor cycle, chasing Kelly McGillis, or playing volleyball on their days off.
 
Cav said:
Leather jackets are miserable professional attire. I'm a professional airline pilot therefore I go old school with the blazer, overcoat, and GASP even the hat...which is optional at my company.

Every time I see an airline pilot in a leather jacket I wonder how they decide between driving their motor cycle, chasing Kelly McGillis, or playing volleyball on their days off.
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I agree 100% :yup:

Call me old-fashioned as well, but I think an airline pilot should be REQUIRED to have the blazer, overcoat when necessary, and yes even the hat. If anything, makes you look better to ladies-like the ZZ Top song says-"Every girl crazy about a sharp dressed man" :cool:
 
kab32283 said:
Call me old-fashioned as well, but I think an airline pilot should be REQUIRED to have the blazer, overcoat when necessary, and yes even the hat.
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Cue the classic "leather jacket vs buisness suit" debate.


Basicly there are a number of people who care very deeply what is "professional dress", while many of us couldn't care less.
 
USMCmech said:
Cue the classic "leather jacket vs buisness suit" debate.


Basicly there are a number of people who care very deeply what is "professional dress", while many of us couldn't care less.
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Good.

So be it right?

Cue the classic "box thrower" pilot vs. "Airline" pilot debate.

While there may not be a perception of professionalism issue in the box throwing world, there very well is one in the flying human bodies alive world. Sure, it may be perception - but it DOES affect the way our companies are viewed by customers and our mainline partners.

As, from what I can tell, someone who was (is) a service member, I would have figured you would know what it means to be viewed as a professional, not just meeting standards, but exceeding them.
 
surreal1221 said:
As, from what I can tell, someone who was a service member, I would have figured you would know what it means to be viewed as a professional, not just meeting standards, but exceeding them.
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I'll wear whatever uniform I'm required to, and do so in as "professional" manner as I can.

However if I'm given a choice between formality and comfort, I'll choose comfort.
 
I don't know why people think leather jackets look so unprofessional.

It conjures images of WWII military aviators in my mind, really. Personally I find the slacks and epaulet-topped leather jacket to show a very neat, tidy professional image. Sort of a bygone-era of flying sort of thing.

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Frankly, given the elements I'm not too keen on destroying a $400 blazer in the winter in Chicago either. Even in the milder Dallas winters leather holds up much better.

If it's not cold enough to wear leather, I just go without a jacket at all as long as I can get away with it. In Dallas, if it's warm enough to not want a jacket it's usually oppressively hot.
 
kab32283 said:
I agree 100% :yup:

Call me old-fashioned as well, but I think an airline pilot should be REQUIRED to have the blazer, overcoat when necessary, and yes even the hat. If anything, makes you look better to ladies-like the ZZ Top song says-"Every girl crazy about a sharp dressed man" :cool:
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Really? 'Cause I think you look like a dork in the Pinnacle hat and short sleeves. :)


Seriously, Tony Hawk could pull a 720 spin off the brim of our hats.
 
kellwolf said:
Really? 'Cause I think you look like a dork in the Pinnacle hat and short sleeves. :)


Seriously, Tony Hawk could pull a 720 spin off the brim of our hats.
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Kell, you are right. There is not much more dorky than a pilot walking around the terminal in the summer, short sleeve shirt w/tie, and a HAT.
We look bad enough wearing a tie with a short sleeve shirt, I feel like a Rent-A-Center salesman. Putting the hat on top of that? No way.
 
Thank you for all the recommendations. Do you have any recommendations on what type of overcoat? I do think I'd look silly wearing one, but I look silly in the uniform as it is.
 
+1 for the leather! I think it looks great as part of an airline pilot uniform. I cant imagine a passenger thinking a nice leather jacket makes the crew look unprofessional. I think they look much more appropriate than many uniform blazers these days (delta being an exception!)

I have one of these I used to wear at my old job and hope to be able to wear again... wont be caught dead wearing it while flying a PA31 and loading boxes though ;) its too damn nice:

http://www.perroneapparel.com/store/proavboards.htm
 
kellwolf said:
Really? 'Cause I think you look like a dork in the Pinnacle hat and short sleeves. :)


Seriously, Tony Hawk could pull a 720 spin off the brim of our hats.
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Oh really? A dork huh? I look like one even without the hat, so why not wear one? :crazy:

What's interesting is that whenever I wear the hat vs when I don't, I notice a HUGE difference in the way I'm viewed and seen by passengers, agents, and other pilots. I can't really describe it, just something I've noticed with how people look at me as a pilot. Without the hat, I get the impression that people see me as a young, immature, unprofessional, inexperienced, 27 year old regional airline FO. With the hat, I get the impression that people truly see me as an experienced pilot, capable of getting them where the need go safely, as well as handling any emergency that may arise. I don't know what it is, but that's the 'feeling' I get when wearing the hat. To me its a big issue-I guess its because I'm so used to wearing uniforms for an extended amount of time due to ROTC and JROTC

As far as wearing the summer uniform with the hat, it looks great! I don't think there's anything wrong with wearing the hat with a short-sleeve shirt and tie. Hell, look at the military!
 
kab32283 said:
What's interesting is that whenever I wear the hat vs when I don't, I notice a HUGE difference in the way I'm viewed and seen by passengers, agents, and other pilots. I can't really describe it, just something I've noticed with how people look at me as a pilot. Without the hat, I get the impression that people see me as a young, immature, unprofessional, inexperienced, 27 year old regional airline FO. With the hat, I get the impression that people truly see me as an experienced pilot, capable of getting them where the need go safely, as well as handling any emergency that may arise. I don't know what it is, but that's the 'feeling' I get when wearing the hat. To me its a big issue-I guess its because I'm so used to wearing uniforms for an extended amount of time due to ROTC and JROTC
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With or without the hat, you still get paid beans unfortunately. Too bad that can't get factored in too, since with all those things you provide service-wise, something should be given back for providing that.

As far as wearing the summer uniform with the hat, it looks great! I don't think there's anything wrong with wearing the hat with a short-sleeve shirt and tie. Hell, look at the military!
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Short sleeve and tie is a no-no. Legal, but dorky and Initech-like. Only long sleeve goes with tie. :)
 
MikeD said:
With or without the hat, you still get paid beans unfortunately. Too bad that can't get factored in too, since with all those things you provide service-wise, something should be given back for providing that.

Short sleeve and tie is a no-no. Legal, but dorky and Initech-like. Only long sleeve goes with tie. :)
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Ahhh...debatable. Yes, with a flight cap (the triangle hat), I think short sleeve with tie looks dorky, and yes, Initech-like (haha, btw). But with a combination cap (the round cap), I think it looks good. Same thing with us as commercial pilots-the hat makes or breaks it! :)
 
MikeD said:
With or without the hat, you still get paid beans unfortunately. Too bad that can't get factored in too, since with all those things you provide service-wise, something should be given back for providing that.



Short sleeve and tie is a no-no. Legal, but dorky and Initech-like. Only long sleeve goes with tie. :)
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Beans? Dunno, there are RJ skippers that made more than you did in the Air Force and never even got shot at.
 
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