Cool...if you're happy with losing your fingers in a fire/mishap in your aircraft.
Just last week on another thread, it was mentioned that with some of our JOs, flying sans flight gloves was more or less routine. Kinda taken aback, I asked if flying with gloves was no longer required. That question was not answered but kinda 'blown off'. One of the responses was something like...I've heard of 2 ejections by pilots without gloves, with no problems...duh (good thing they weren't on fire)!
Not to be flippant, but the gloves we are talking about have a NAVAIR flight clearance. Not an Interim Flight Clearance, but a TINS flight clearance.
I fly with gloves all the time, after talking to a buddy of mine that landed a CH-46E when it was on fire (after having been shot down over Fallujah, and he landed it with no AFCS, no electrical power, and his goggles were blooming out because of the fire engulfing his aircraft). He was flying without gloves that day and got 2nd/3rd degree burns on his hands that day...
Of course, I have another buddy that was involved in a mishap that killed the guys in back. He was wearing his NAVAIR approved flight gloves, and lost his ring finger/pinky finger on his right hand. Gloves really can't do much when it comes to an overhead panel landing on your hand in a mishap. FWIW - he actually got a waiver from NAMI and started flying the Phrog again, just recently retired after flying with HMX.
Gloves aren't bullet proof, and if NAVAIR is going to approve gloves with finger tips on the first two fingers and thumbs missing, I'm going to get them.
