Is there a policy for this?

[Frontier1]

I was at Park Meadows mall here in Colorado when I saw a guy walking around in a pilots uniform. The guy was alone and appeared to be a F/O. I am not sure which airline he was from.
I know most employers have rules against wearing your uniform in public.
Just wondering if this is normal or what?

He looked like an idiot if you asked me.

 

[:-)]

I know of no rule against wearing your uniform in public. The rule is generally this: if you wear any of it, you have to wear all of if. So the dork you saw was probably just following the rule. Still, it makes him a dork at best.

I remove the shoulder boards and tie as soon as I hit the employee parking lot. That leaves me with navy blue pants and a white shirt, I don't look as cool as I do in my "queer eye for a straight guy" stuff, but at least I ain't going around the mall looking like a Mexican General.

He's a dork!

Calvin

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

First class Dork, but no rule against it. About the only rule I have seen is company prohibition against drinking alcohol in uniform.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

First class dork = no pride. Don't confuse ego with pride.

I'm not going to give any pilot respect if he thinks he is a dork wearing the uniform outside of the airport. Did it become shameful to be pilot? I must have missed the memo or the generational switch.....

 

[chperplt]

What makes him a dork? Maybe is was on his way home from work and had to get a gift for his wife or kids? Should he stop somewhere and change before going into a public place?

 

[FlyChicaga]

Honestly, does it make a difference? I had sterilezed my uniform before going into Starbucks on my way to work (no tie/epaulets) and the girl at the register still asked, "Are you a pilot?" You don't see members of most other professions removing their uniforms to stop for groceries or coffee. Now if you meet up with the missus after work for dinner and a movie and refuse to change prior, you are going a little over the top.

 

[captain caveman]

ASA has policy against public uniform wear unless it's a funeral, or enroute to assingment. I have had the wife ask me to pick stuff up on the way home from work and I wouldn't bother changing.

 

[FN FAL]

I was at Park Meadows mall here in Colorado when I saw a guy walking around in a pilots uniform. The guy was alone and appeared to be a F/O. I am not sure which airline he was from.
I know most employers have rules against wearing your uniform in public.
Just wondering if this is normal or what?

He looked like an idiot if you asked me.

Some pilots have to wait in town during a trip, so they go to the mall to walk around untill their passengers show up. Maybe to buy a book, maybe to people watch, maybe to buy lunch. So now he has to drag along a suitcase on a one day trip, just to keep someone from calling him an idiot?

I say the pilot is an idiot for coming to your town and spending money in your mall for lunch, because evidently your town doesn't need the extra money.

I see by your stats, you have made very few posts and aren't very aviation savvy, so I'll clue you in. Not all guys wearing what appears to be an AIRLINE STYLE uniform are MAJOR AIRLINE PIELETS.

 

[Frontier1]

Well this idiot was just walking around. Saw him a few times over about an hours time.
Appeared he was looking for attention. Too bad for him because I did not see any babes on his arms.

 

[FN FAL]

Ummmmm...sounds like a poor charter or corporate pilot stuck in town for the day. Happens all the time.

 

[Indigo]

Ummmmm...sounds like a poor charter or corporate pilot stuck in town for the day. Happens all the time.

And that mall he's talking about is just across the highway from APA which has lots of charter and corporate traffic.

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

OK OK, who cares!!! I was once in a joint assignment in PNS where the navy treated their flight suits as utility uniforms and changed out of them into class 2s before they left the flight line... The air force did not treat our bags as utility uniforms, in fact up to that point I hadn't worn my blues in years. The training squadron changed the rules to make it acceptable to wear them off base but only to/from home and for small errands-- gas, post office, fast food establishments... What this pilot did, who cares... We're not in the Navy anymore. Besides, if this is one of your coharts, he probably spent his last 1000 on that uniform.

 

[Frontier1]

I just went back to the mall to exchange a pair of pants I bought and this guy is still there.
Now I had to talk to him to see what was up. He is a skywest F/O. He told me he was on his way to the airport when his car broke down. He said he was waiting for a friend to pick him up and drive him to the airport. Turns out he was there for about four hours today.
So basically he is four hours late to work from what he says. I dont buy it.

I wonder when the Denver Broncos will start wearing their uniforms to the mall.

 

[chperplt]

Sounds to me like the only dork here is Frontier1.

 

[balls deep340]

Sounds to me like the only dork here is Frontier1.

Roger that. I think he is Jealous. It was surely a corporate pilot just going for a stroll waiting for his paxs.

Most airlines don't allow you to wear the uniform but to and from assignment.

 

[dash8driver]

maybe he was working his 2nd job as a mall security guard and forgot to change his eppaulettes. [size=-1][/size]

 

[saabcaptain]

I know most pilots take off all the bars, tie etc. when stopping in a store. i for one do not, if i am on my way home and am picking up a sandwich or a cup of coffee i still wear the full uniform. am i a dork? many would say i am but i am proud of my profession. that said if i have any extensive shopping to do etc. i do take the uniform off, but i don't bother for quick stop ins, nor should i have to.

 

[Frontier1]

Something wrong with this picture? A skywest F/O cannot afford to buy anything, mush less be at an upscale mall.
I am sure the ladies are glad they did not give him any attention. He was seen leaving on the local RTD bus.
Perhaps he was a mall ninja and bringing in more $$$ than the poor puddle jumper.

 

[dash8driver]

i wear street clothes to/from the airport and change in the lockerooms that we have...keep all my stuff there. all my neighbors wonder wtf i do and if i even have a job...haha. they always see me around, but never leaving for, or coming home from work at the normal times and i'm always in street clothes.

 

[FlyChicaga]

This is what this thread needs!

Or this!

 

[mar]

Links = LOL. Very funny.

In my previous life (when I wore uniforms) I always kept a spare shirt in my truck. You know, one that matched my uniform pants.

Maybe that's going a little too far. But I've made the made dash into a store or a utility office at the last minute when I didn't have any time to spare to go home and change into my street clothes and the dorkiness of it all compelled me to always have a spare shirt with me.

Or a sweater.

Or I've also just taken off my uniform shirt and gone in with just my t-shirt.

And pants.

 

[Mu2Driver]

I can't believe that nobody remembers that Frontier1 is the UAL 744 Capt. who makes 300K+ a year...AND he works on his days off for other airlines to make more $$$$$

He's an idiot

 

[Frontier1]

I can't believe that nobody remembers that Frontier1 is the UAL 744 Capt. who makes 300K+ a year...AND he works on his days off for other airlines to make more $$$$$

He's an idiot

You're right! Yesterday evening I flew an MD88 for Delta. Tomorrow I am back at United and the 744 for a trip to China. On Wednesday I am flying a puddle jumper for Skywest.
Gotta pay bills ya know.

I still have plenty of time to remove the uniform before I look like an idiot in public.

 

[chperplt]

You forgot about working the fry machine at Burger King..

 

[Frontier1]

You forgot about working the fry machine at Burger King..

Actually, as the Manager, I dont get my hands dirty.

 

[eagleb2skipper]

deleted

 

[Skyliner]

As others have mentioned, i think the "company policy" depends on the company. I can certainly understand running into a store to pick something up or having to hang around in uniform waiting for a trip or something. Off the top of my head, I think my employer forbids us to wear our uniforms except when travelling to and from the airport...but I don't have the manual right in front of me.

I seem to recall having seen a uniform worn as a Halloween costume as well. Now thats scary.

And I can think of one instance where it helped someone get out of a traffic ticket. A UAL 767 capt I know told a story of getting pulled over one time coming back from ORD in uniform for an expired license sticker. The cop asked him who he flew for, and thus started a conversation about flying. The capt said that he'd been away from home for "nearly a month," and that he would get a new sticker as soon as he could. In reality, he was just returning from a three day trip....but no ticket!

 

[English]

I just went back to the mall to exchange a pair of pants I bought and this guy is still there.
Now I had to talk to him to see what was up. He is a skywest F/O. He told me he was on his way to the airport when his car broke down. He said he was waiting for a friend to pick him up and drive him to the airport. Turns out he was there for about four hours today.
So basically he is four hours late to work from what he says. I dont buy it.

I wonder when the Denver Broncos will start wearing their uniforms to the mall.

Hey wait...you went to all the trouble to talk to the guy, and you didn't offer him a ride?

 

[Luchini]

I dont see whats the big deal. Now I am not a pilot yet but I see plenty of people shopping for stuff in their work uniform. It probably just means they just got off work. I do it all the time when I go to the grocery store when I get off work. Way I see it is Im already dressed, hair is already combed, im already out of the house. Hell I have even stayed un uniform when I go eat with friends and see a movie afterwards. Im not gonna freakin drive home just to change if I am wearing something half way decent.

 

[apdsm]

A true dork would also put the hat on to go to the mall!