NEWS NAVAIR approves new flight suit (Pickle has a new suit!)

[Treetop Flyer]

I've been wearing the two piece for the past four years. By itself it's not much of an upgrade. However, when combined with a combat shirt and flying in the east county area I wouldn't want to fly with anything else. The temperature difference with a combat shirt and a one piece is vastly different. Much more comfortable when you're sweating your ass off in a desert.

WTF is a “combat shirt”? I assume a quick drying shirt that’s labeled “combat” to sound cool like so many other things these days?

 

[RobLyman]

WTF is a “combat shirt”? I assume a quick drying shirt that’s labeled “combat” to sound cool like so many other things these days?

Worn in lieu of the top part of your flight suit. Pretty nice when it is 120 degrees out and you are wearing body armor, survival vest, M9 and M-4 while flying an aircraft with no AC. Part of our FREE ensemble (redundant, I know).

Oh yeah, pisses off SGMs almost as much as the vest does. Not allowed in the chow hall at Buehring, even if you are on Medevac (2nd up) duty.

 

[jmcquate]

Has the basic design changed since WWII? If if ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[fc2spyguy]

Has the basic design changed since WWII? If if ain't broke, don't fix it.

So, don't look for improvement? The two piece is an improvement on the onesie. Having worn both of them, that is my opinion. I don't think you'll find any dissenters in that regards. I get it, they don't work for ejection equipped aircraft, that doesn't mean we all need the same flight suit.

 

[sickboy]

I love my two piece. I just wish CAG would've let us use it.

 

[webmaster]

Worn in lieu of the top part of your flight suit. Pretty nice when it is 120 degrees out and you are wearing body armor, survival vest, M9 and M-4 while flying an aircraft with no AC. Part of our FREE ensemble (redundant, I know).
View attachment 17976
Oh yeah, pisses off SGMs almost as much as the vest does. Not allowed in the chow hall at Buehring, even if you are on Medevac (2nd up) duty.

Isn’t that when you tell the SGM to fuck off? Politely of course?

 

[Pags]

Worn in lieu of the top part of your flight suit. Pretty nice when it is 120 degrees out and you are wearing body armor, survival vest, M9 and M-4 while flying an aircraft with no AC. Part of our FREE ensemble (redundant, I know).
View attachment 17976
Oh yeah, pisses off SGMs almost as much as the vest does. Not allowed in the chow hall at Buehring, even if you are on Medevac (2nd up) duty.

I had an early prototype of the two piece a few years ago. The combat shirt+flight suit trousers were awesome during the summer in Pax. I wish i had had them when I was in the gulf; I used to come out of the airplane with a completely soaked flight suit. It was so uniformly soaked that people didn’t think it was wet...until I came in for the hug. Also woe to the poor folks who had to hotseat from me.

 

[Jim123]

The combat shirt is like under armor that won't burn and give you hideous permanent skin damage. Whatever they coated it with, when combined with human sweat, makes the worst man-made smell I have ever encountered, no exaggeration, worse than anything... at least the original combat shirts in 2008 did that.

 

[nittany03]

Isn’t that when you tell the SGM to fuck off? Politely of course?

After 14 and a half years, I still can’t wrap my brain around the concept of commissioned officers who can’t/won’t do this. Yes, I know some MCPOs/Sergeants Major have top cover with stars on their collars, and that makes it a bad idea. Get that. Hate it, but get it.

But still. The idea of entire bases being held hostage to a few senior NCOs’ misinterpretation of the purpose of uniform regs grinds my gears on a fundamental moral level.

 

[Gatordev]

Yes, I know some MCPOs/Sergeants Major have top cover with stars on their collars, and that makes it a bad idea.

I don't think a large number of E-9s have nearly the top cover they think they have. Yes, they used to be on the Staff/Force/whatever, but it's amazing how quickly that dissolves when you just tell them no, and if they have a problem with the <insert procedure> they can address it via their chain of command (even when it's also your chain of command). Obviously there's technique with this procedure, but for one particular E-9 that was a constant struggle for all, a little word judo quickly identified how much was perceived power and how much was just laziness to actually execute.

 

[picklesuit]

I love the “Go bother someone else Senior Chief...I’m drinking.”

Also a favorite when told I was too sweaty to eat in the DFAC at the Died by some AF E-7/8 (not sure, didn’t care) after walking my mile from the trailer to the chow hall in 120 degree heat...
“I don’t think so Scooter, I’m gonna eat, and you can go fetch me a dry shirt if it bothers you that much.”

 

[Flash]

I know the Army has had two piece flight suits for a while now. So, what was their justification?

I'm convinced it was because the new flight suits look almost identical to the 'regular' Army fatigues/BDU's and were not flight suits, which didn't say 'solider' enough. Having worked on a 'joint' staff with mostly Army folks you should have seen the numerous near aneurysms us Navy fliers caused when we started regularly wearing flight suits.

 

[Gonzo08]

My new air wing allows their helo bubbas to wear the 2-piece. CAG Staff is actually joking about ordering a set for everyone to wear on no-fly days.

 

[insanebikerboy]

My new air wing allows their helo bubbas to wear the 2-piece. CAG Staff is actually joking about ordering a set for everyone to wear on no-fly days.

I guess my question is how can the CAG deny the helo guys wearing them? It is an approved piece of flight gear after all.