Top ten reasons for flight suits:
10. After planning a VFR flight late into the night, you don't need
to get up and ask 'what should I wear today?' while needing
GPS just to locate the bathroom.
9. Ever sit in a small aircraft and discover that a your pants and
drawers and the little seat are conspiring to create an
aero-wedgie
(aka 'Flying Melvin') which is impossible to dislodge without
unusual-attitude practice? Doesn't happen in a flight suit. And
if you think it's good in the left seat, you should try it in
the
Lazy-Boy while a 'WINGS' marathon is on the Discovery
Channel!
8. The continuous-belt arrangment and ample space in the
suit mean that, as the effects of all those $100 hamburgers
and post-flight hangar brewskies turn you from an F15 to
a C141, you don't run out of space to store the cargo. This
allows you to deny that you've changed, until the ME starts
to shake his head mencingly.
7. Once you really start to slide, you wear it everywhere. You wear
it to your anniversary dinner with your wife, and voila! No more
anniversary dinners! Now you have the time to finish up that
O-200 conversion. Dunno why she's so mad, though. You put
on a jacket and a tie, and the flight-suit has a collar so the
tie
looked fine. Well didn't it?
6. Since your 415C with C75 needs a C85, then a C90, then an
O-200 conversion due to the effects of (8) above, you can't
afford any new clothes. That durable old flight suit begins to
come into its own. Gets to where you stand there in your
skivvies
while the washer and dryer finish up with it. Even at the
laundromat,
which is where you do your wash since she threw you out and
you've been sleeping on an army cot in the hangar, in your
flight
suit.
5. Face it, it's coveralls. While the plane is grounded and you're
working on it, it's still appropriate attire. Say, six days in
seven.
Six months in seven if you are encumbered with a day job.
And if you wear it all the time, it's never really clear that
among
the three-and-a-half airplanes you own (including the basket
case)
you haven't actually owned a flyable one in 17 months. Including
the 7AC that you picked up last week, the one that only needs
fabric and an engine to be perfect.
4. With your flight-suit on, you're a walking cockpit-organizer. You
have pen-pockets. You have note-pad pockets. You have glasses
pockets. That gives you great places to wish you'd stored all
that stuff
which winds up under the seat anyway while you pat yourself down
like you were getting ready to take yourself into custody, just
to find
a pencil to copy the ATIS onto a corner of the sectional because
the note-pad is definitely out of reach under the seat.
3. If you wear it to air-shows, the pimply-face CAP cadets are less
likely to stop you when you try to sneak into the flight line
for a
close look at 'Sentimental Journey.' Mutter something about 'CAF
crew' and press on like you know where you're going.
2. Patty Wagstaff wears one. Now that the wife has left, you're
available.
You secretly hope Patty will take one look at you in your cool
flight-suit and ask coyly if you happen to have a
washing-machine at
your place. Whereupon you'll make the worlds fastest trip to
Ed and Frank's Used Appliance Emporium.
And THE number-one reason to wear a flight suit:
1. If you are forced down over alien territory, (possibly because of
the [EMAIL PROTECTED]& electric fuel-pump on that O-200 conversion) a
flight
suit
will serve you well as you make your way through the undergrowth,
and fields, waiting for Charlie to find you.
Once Charlie does find you, he'll probably take you over to the
local
Moose Lodge bar for a beer or twenty. (You didn't think I meant
the
'WINGS at War' kind of 'Charlie,' did you? This is America, 1998.
I meant 'Charlie,' the guy who drives the tow-truck down at the
Mobil
station. He heard 'one of them little airplanes going over, she
sounded
like she was in trouble, so he drove the truck over to the old
Jones
place where it looked like she went down.' Unfortunately, you're
a little dazed after the bumpy landing, and just watched a 'WINGS
at War' marathon. He's a little guy, and when he shows up in his
pajamas and says 'Hi, I'm Charlie,' a bit of a misunderstanding
ensues.
Once that is resolved, you become instant friends, as is the case
with
people who spend time rolling around in a hay field together. You
accept his invitation to alleviate your concussion with alcohol,
applied
inernally.
Anyway, when you and Charlie walk into the bar, and you're in
your
now slightly rumpled, sweaty, and greasy coveralls, you'll fit in
with
the crowd in there. Since you've mowed down most of a field of
corn, set a hay-stack on fire, tried to punch out the town
tow-truck
driver, and still need to figure out how to get the airplane out
of
there,
fitting in is a real good idea. Especially since you only brought
enough
money along for about 8 gallons of 80 octane.
I mean, think about it. Show up in the same situation in dockers,
topsiders,
a polo shirt, and a pink Izod sweater tied sportily around your neck, and
you'd probably have to buy your own beer. At very least.
Greg
Steve Dold wrote:
> Maybe you can help me: What is the reason for a flight suit? In the
CAP
> outfit I was in, I think they wanted us to look "Air Force", but is
there
> another reason? Are they fire-retardant or something? Say, maybe they
ARE
> a good idea, with the header tank nestled up there with the electrical
> wiring :-)
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