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Parts Incorporated in a Flight Suit

NavAir42

I'm not dead yet....
pilot
I always thought the thigh pocket was designed for a knife to cut yourself free of chute lines.

Correct, however, I keep a flashlight in there. At least for P-3 guys, we have our shroud cutters in our airsave survival vests. P-3 guys "wear" coveralls, boots, gloves and survival vests and carry along a helmet. I use the quotation marks because gloves, at least for the flight station can be waived by the plane commander. I waive it for the guys who fly with me and survival vests are only required to be worn by the flight station during over water flight and by everyone anytime the aircraft is below 1000ft when over water. With a few exceptions the pilots and flight engineers wear their vest anytime they're in the seat. Parachutes are in the plane and never worn, with the exception of drills once every so often. Helmets are pretty well treated the same way as parachutes.
 

darrylcn

Member
As a plane geek on the outside looking in, that's a surprise about the helmets. Guess there isn't a whole lot of programs out there to watch about Orions unfortunately.

Speaking of suits, the little flap that covers the pen pocket on the sleeve - do most people cut that off? I almost did on mine (yeah, sad, I know :)) after reading somewhere they do but I've never seen it very much.
 

Coota0

Registered User
None
usmarinemike - where did the Marine pilots carry their M4?

Don't know about the USMC, but we have clips for ours on the dash. If Lawman checks in he can tell you where the -64 guys keep theirs, when they bother taking them.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Speaking of suits, the little flap that covers the pen pocket on the sleeve - do most people cut that off? I almost did on mine (yeah, sad, I know :)) after reading somewhere they do but I've never seen it very much.

Only if you are in the AF or want to pretend to be :)

Most of them cut it off and then put a little patch over the velcro part that is their home state flag.....at least from what I have seen. I'd personally prefer the extra FOD protection from a slipping pen, rather than this, but that's just me.
 

Treetop Flyer

Well-Known Member
pilot
Thanks all. And I literally mean everything and anything incorporated into a Flight suit, including all flight gear needed.

H6- - That website was incredibly useful, thanks.

For future reference, "flight suit" refers to the actual flight suit, just the uniform.
 

darrylcn

Member
Heh, nope, I don't pretend to be anything I'm not. I'm just a guy that never grew up when it came to planes, dunno why I'm 30 and still get spooled up about jets, but I'm otherwise normal I swear :). My friends give me heat about the flight gear collection, but it's a nearly complete F-14 gear setup that I've worked hard to get, piece by piece. Hell, some people collect stamps, I have that and patches and other Tomcat stuff. I treat a place like this (I think this is the only place like this?) as kind of a neat forum to be able to learn from people who actually are the real deal, glad it's not too exclusive for non military. Thanks for the answer, btw.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Heh, nope, I don't pretend to be anything I'm not. I'm just a guy that never grew up when it came to planes, dunno why I'm 30 and still get spooled up about jets, but I'm otherwise normal I swear :). My friends give me heat about the flight gear collection, but it's a nearly complete F-14 gear setup that I've worked hard to get, piece by piece. Hell, some people collect stamps, I have that and patches and other Tomcat stuff. I treat a place like this (I think this is the only place like this?) as kind of a neat forum to be able to learn from people who actually are the real deal, glad it's not too exclusive for non military. Thanks for the answer, btw.

Oh no worries at all. I think most of us feel the way you do, even if we happen to get paid to do it now. I still step outside and look up to the sky like a dork when I hear the sound of jets (or other cool military aircraft) fly over.
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
Only if you are in the AF or want to pretend to be

Or you got a bunch of Air Force flight suits that they were going to destroy, since the Navy was too cheap to ever give you more than 1 in your size at API. Happened to me. It took me getting to the RAG to finally get all those stupid big square patches taken off, but still no FOD flap. It's not really that useful, even in T-6s with plenty of negative G's I never had a problem with stuff flying out. Most of the time pens were tied to my kneeboard anyways.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Guns, knives, flashlights, shark repellant, PRC-112, iodine tablets,... whatever. Typical Navy/Marine loadout-of-pain.
In the USAF, we carry a pencil, spork (spoon/fork thingy) in the slot next to the pencil (in lieu of the pen), and a cell phone. Done.
If I bailout (sorry,... "eject"), I call for Chinese takeout or a cab. I use the pencil to write down the phone number I get from GOOG-411 so I don't have to call twice, using excess battery power... it's all about saving your battery power, people.
If I'm out of cell coverage in the urban jungle, I'm certainly near a 7/11, and there I can obtain a can of tuna or Dinty Moore Beef Stew, hence the spork.
Meanwhile, Mr Golden-Wings from the Dept of Navy is putting on camo so he can sneak onto private property to set his gill net, and try to shoot/field dress a cat... all within 3 km of a Sprint Store.
Of course, if I'm injured and bleeding, the ascot makes a perfect dressing... or tourniquet if it's serious.
And you guys thought ascots were dumb...

Actually, I considered ribbing Condi and Bonesaw (the Super Hornet demo guys) 2 weeks ago about the fully loaded vest they had to wear for their demo at Madera near Fresno. Of course I didn't,... but it looked like a pain to wear while doing -3/+7 for 20 minutes over central California farmland.

As for the flap pocket, yes we cut them off. I know of no one that's had an "incident" due to its removal. And yes, some of our guys pull (push?) negative G's.
We had this argument on another thead, I think.

As for the little patch, it's a hodge podge. I wear a tribute to the last guy I know that died in a military related incident.
http://www.markdashgraziano.com/


OK, back to my bottle of Shiraz.
 

Treetop Flyer

Well-Known Member
pilot
Guns, knives, flashlights, shark repellant, PRC-112, iodine tablets,... whatever. Typical Navy/Marine loadout-of-pain.
In the USAF, we carry a pencil, spork (spoon/fork thingy) in the slot next to the pencil (in lieu of the pen), and a cell phone. Done.
If I bailout (sorry,... "eject"), I call for takeout or a cab. I use the pencil to write down the phone number I get from GOOG-411 so I don't have to call twice, using excess battery power.
If I'm out of cell coverage in the urban jungle, I'm certainly near a 7/11, and there I can obtain a can of tuna or Dinty Moore Beef Stew, hence the spork.
Meanwhile, Mr Golden-Wings from the Dept of Navy is putting on camo so he can sneak onto private property to set his gill net, and try to shoot/field dress a cat... all within 3 km of a Sprint Store.

All that plus a space suit and some food you can eat with a straw, right?
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Dude! How did you copy/paste in the middle of my thought process?? I wasn't finished!!
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
....In the USAF, we carry a pencil, spork (spoon/fork thingy) in the slot next to the pencil (in lieu of the pen), and a cell phone. Done....
Must be nice to travel light ... 'cause you guys used to carry one of these in your seat pan:

USAF M6 Survival Rifle




Personally, I found the inclusion of a Filipino Negrito Scout w/bolo to be the single most useful item to have in a seat pan:

filipinoscout.gif
filipinobolo.jpg


Note: most 'representative' Filipino Bolos, including mine, were made out of former USA Willys JEEP leaf springs ... :)
 

darrylcn

Member
Appreciate the replies folks. Now that I think of it, I *think* I had the big square patches on my suit when it got here from eBay or whereever. I remember thinking "$%^#, that's not very Navy like" while taking them off. Guess it was more authentic than I knew.
 
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