The bars on shoulders. What do they mean?

[Tomo]

I noticed coach drivers were them too.

Yup! Just another thing to Iron!

 

 

[dunlopdangler]

:csm: = bars on shirts (unless you drive a cab or bus/airbus):big_grin:

 

 

[Tracktop]

So....Maybe RA-Aus can set up their own colour (bronze? red? purple?) and have our own little system - a new bar for each endorsement perhaps?

You lot - well some anyway have got to be kidding. You scream like buggery about maybe having to have something useful like a radio and you even contemplate The white shirt / epaulettes b.s. in RAA. Leave the cxxp where it belongs - on tour coaches and commercial flight and shipping exercises and keep RAA friendly and non pompus as it should be.:DirtDOG:

 

And yes Darky some more casm for you, maybe even a bar for each flight over 30min duration would be appropiate, better make it pink. Then if want to be really uppity then one star for each full size aircraft ( flight sims and remote ctl don't count) you fully own ( HP or share don't count).:baldy:

 

:big_grin:

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Hey I don't really care if you wear bars or not, they don't do much for me, but maybe if I was a commercial pilot, it may be part of the job. I'm sure a student sitting next to an instructor in an RAA bugsmasher, knows who the one is with all the experience, bars or no bars. I am proud of my achievements in aviation, as we all should be, and I have for years carriied a small set of gold wings on whatever jacket I'm wearing at the time, plus I know the time logged in my logbooks is all hard-earned honest time, so that does it for me..................................

 

 

[Tracktop]

Don't have a problem of small wings on jacket at all

 

 

[Tracktop]

Ouch?

Wasn't meant to hurt. Fine for your GA route.

 

 

[Al B]

Ultralights I completely agree - Being an RAA pilot, I wear 4 stripes every time I'm at the field (they are silver at the moment - I plan to changing to gold once I get my PPL). I also wear my ASIC constantly so people know I'm a pilot. If they don't know what it is, or forget to ask me, I tell them what is it.

 

I also have a CD containing the 'Top Gun' theme in an endless loop to play over the intercom for passengers.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Don't were bars, but I'm proud to wear my old Sqdn crests when it's a bit nippy up there. One day, I'll add the RA.Aus and RecreationalFlying insignias. Call me a w**ker if that makes your day.

 

 

 

 

[DarkSarcasm]

Does anyone here actually wear (or even own) bars?

 

I fly in civvies and I assumed most others did too.....

 

(Just slightly surprised at the level of debate there's been about this topic! )

 

 

[Mazda]

Al B, that's a classic!!!

 

It's like the old joke. How do you know when there is a pilot at a party? They tell you.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

The local Aero clubs' got a bar !!.................................................................

 

 

[Guest Crezzi]

You scream like buggery about maybe having to have something useful like a radio and you even contemplate The white shirt / epaulettes b.s. in RAA.

I suspect those of us who don't like the idea of compulsory radio probably don't go in for the pretentious attire either I could be wrong though

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[Tomo]

Does anyone here actually wear (or even own) bars?I fly in civvies and I assumed most others did too.....

 

(Just slightly surprised at the level of debate there's been about this topic! )

Me too!!

 

My Dad used to have them when coach driving tours, but thats a while ago now!

 

 

[facthunter]

Bars.

 

The question can be asked, but why would you bother? Four bars used to mean command of a Large Jet. This is a hang-over from military procedure. People know who the captain is when he/she as so adorned and there might be some justification as he is in charge, and fuellers, load controllers, customs persons etc. might find that convenient.

 

To wear such items in our environment to me is something of a big wank. ( that is how I would regard it anyhow and I don't think that I would be alone there.).

 

Question. How do you know who the pilots are at the party?

 

Answer. Just listen and they will tell you.

 

Sorry Mazda You got in ahead of me.

 

I do have a confession to make though. I wear weird caps sometimes and some weirder badges. Nobody (almost) would know what some of the badges mean . Nobody's perfect.....Nev..

 

 

[planedriver]

Why not grow a handlebar moustache .............................??

Not for Darky . Thats a silly suggestion, as she'd probably have to wait another 40yrs before she'd qualify.

 

 

[techie49]

What about that African athlete............

 

 

[DarkSarcasm]

I'm not sure it'd really suit me that well anyway...

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

baseball cap with scrambled eggs on the peak for me.

 

white shirts are out, anything white only stays that way for about 10 seconds,

 

don't like epilets they get hung up on Islander pitots but they can help to stop the seat belt slipping off your shoulder.

 

 

[stanzahero]

I bought some wing from the RAA shop to celebrate the certificate...

 

They adorn my computer work desk at the moment...

 

 

[dazza 38]

I bought some wing from the RAA shop to celebrate the certificate...They adorn my computer work desk at the moment...

Hello,stanzhero, i have a couple of wings as well, nice to receive on the day, you know, as a acheivement.

[farri]

Got a laugh from this thread and the interest it has created,"Bars,indeed".

 

Frank.

 

 

[bones]

The only bars i ever had on my shoulders were bloody crow bars, and any one is welcome to take them back

 

 

[Guest Elk McPherson]

When I was RAAus I ALWAYS flew in civvies... but then people were always in the dark that there was a flying school in town.

 

When I flew survey, I always wore (neat) civvies... we didn't want to draw too much attention to the kind of survey we were doing.

 

Now that I own the flying school/charter company, it is (non-compulsory) policy for all my pilots to wear uniform, including bars, when driving to/from work and when at work.

 

Why?

 

Because it attracts attention and reminds people that there is a professional, commercial aviation operation in town. Just another marketing tool.

 

Speaking of tool... yeah when I bought my 4-bars as CFI/CP I didn't wear them for nearly 12 months and wore my old tarnished 3-bars instead :yin_yan:

 

 

[farri]

Elk,on a serious note,what you`ve said makes good sence and it`s been a standard in general aviation for a long time,it allows us to recognise someomes level of achievement.

 

I think if bars are worn by RAA pilots they should be part of, and unique to the RAA system, so as to distinguish us from general aviation.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Guest check-in]

Please, for RECREATION aviation - no bars, no uniforms, no wings. The mere fact that you have rocked up at some airfield in your own aeroplane is surely enough advertisement of your achievement? Go to any flash yacht club and notice how the tossers in the whites with all the braid are the very ones not sailing, or if they are, doing all the yelling and generally making a pig's ear of it. The scruffy ones are the true boat handlers.

 

Baseball caps with aviation-related logos are OK because they serve a practical purpose (the caps, not the logos). Even better if the cap was given to you by a grateful purveyor of engines etc. I have a lovely, grimy and faded Pratt & Whitney cap that I value and it only cost my employer about half a million bucks. A non-aviation person looking at it would not associate the P&W logo with flying, but that is not the point. The point is that it is comfortable and useful.

 

Uniforms are for the professionals who do need to advertise their presence to their passengers. Apart from the traditional reason of identifying the airline, the real reason today is that they have to establish authority if there is an emergency. There is also a secondary need for them to be recognised by security personnel, customs, immigration etc. IMHO some flying schools have gone over the top with 4 gold bars for a Grade 1 or 2 Instructor - it used to be reserved for an international airline captain. Domestic captains only wore 3 but then it kind of escalated and now it seems anyone flying a light twin aspires to 4 bars.

 

At RA level, we don't have to do any of this; so I will stay with motorbike trousers (don't squash your nuts like jeans) and any colour shirt that does not show the oil stains too badly.