Warbird Information Exchange

How was your day yesterday?



Mine? Ahh, fair.

T

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"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

Ooh , post more Are you in Nathan Davis's P-51?

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T-6F N81854

Just to ask a question, What is the point of the current trend towards wearing USAF type jet helmets in warbirds? I mean, while a parachute jump might, in an extreme emergency be necessary, the phase where the helmet would be- i.e.: the ejection phase- is not present, as the (WWII) warbirds are not rocket seat equipped. While I admit an AN-H-14 helmet won't give the best sound suppression, there are good semi-period looking flying helmets which could be David Clark or Bose equipped, and look more authentic for the flying...

Why spend all that money for the aircraft to be authentically represented, and then to ruin flying photos cause the pilot isn't? The photo above would be really neat if the head in shot over the flight jacket had a tan cloth helmet, rather than a gumball.

Just asking...

That said, "Lucky Bas^@rd", flying a P-51 while I'm stuck on the ground... LOL

Robbie

old argument on helmets. In the event of a prang they might just save your life....

a study done many years ago concluded that most fatal Mustang crashes "may" have been survivable if the pilot had been wearing head protection. You see it gets wild inside an enclosed space if there is a landing accident etc...

Mustang drivers for example in Korea did often wear helmets as they came into vogue.

Let's not have an "authentic" crash..

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..defeat is never an option!

The yellow helmet is his work helmet. It matches his AirTractor. That's the only helmet he owns.
Just FYI,
VL

Robbie the main reason (for me anyway) is for noise protection. With the technology that's around now I would hope that everyone would have a properly fitted helmet with at least the Oregon Aero kit (or like Nathan has the CEP setup). I already feel the hearing loss and I don't want it to get any worse and I'm sure not going to voluntarily quit flying. My Dad was one of those guys who always wore the David Clark headset and his hearing was completely shot (or he was ignoring me).

Also you can't wear an O2 mask with a cloth helmet.

btw I have one of those Campbell Aero Classics and they are more traditional looking and also have quite good hearing protection.

Id wear my helmet and all my other navy gear (well not the G suit) in a cessna 172...the only thing keeping me from it is peer pressure. If nomex gives you say 2% more protection in a fire and then you add 10% for wearing gloves and then another 15% for the helmet---you might just survive a catastrophic problem that would kill a guy wearing sgorts and a cotton shirt. Actually i do wear my nomex jacket and have gloves with me....

Trey;
Any more pics of your day in Danville?
Love to see them.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Who's Mustang are you in?

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T-6F, N81857
warbirdridesusa@gmail.com

Hey Trey nice shots and congrats on the PPL...

Lynn

Not to hijack the thread, but I wear full Nomex and helmet in all of my warbirds. I sat thru countless hours of Life Support Equipment training while I was flying for the military. A good portion of it was conducted by guys that had been burned severly while not wearing issued flight gear in very survivable flash fire situations. Visor down and nomex collar up makes a huge difference. I also fly with the mask to avoid C02 issues. The 3350 can put out some high level of noxious gas if things go wrong.

I don't really care much about the pics, well, not as much as my head anyway. I'm kinda attached to it.

BTW, having the helmet on saved Doug Jeanes life in the take of fire in the P-47. You should see what the helmet looked like. That in itself, would be enough for me, even if I hadn't had all the military training.

For more info check out these threads----

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... 05&start=0

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... 99&start=0

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

I'll admit I've got all of 2 high performance warbird flights. I didn't wear a flightsuit for the first flight (in the DFW Wing's BT-15), but only because I didn't have one at the time. I did wear my flightsuit for the T-6 flight and I keep it with me at all times. If I was allowed, I'd be wearing that flightsuit for Civil Air Patrol flights as well, but I have to have a blue one (due to weight) and I don't have the money to buy a Nomex blue one right now. I refuse to own a nylon flightsuit. What good does it do me to have a flightsuit that will only make the burns worse if there's a fire?

Likewise, I have a helmet (actually 2) but neither are currently configured for flying, but I wear my Flight Deck Helmet (as stupid as it makes me look) whenever working around helicopters, and once I make the required repairs to the other, I will probably wear it for warbird flights. Any protection is a benefit in an aircraft with a canopy instead of a cabin, especially if it keeps my head from banging painfully off said canopy and potentially penetrating the glazing.

I wish there were more warbird pilots who thought like you Eric! I too believe fully in the value of life support equipment, including Nomex flight suit, gloves and helmet. They do make a huge difference. I know many pilots who owe their lives to such equipment. It always makes me cringe when I see a warbird pilot wearing a Dave Clark headset and short sleeve shirt and pants or worse yet - shorts! (Ahhhhemmmm...Howard Pardue) I can't believe anyone would not want to fully protect themselves with cheap, available safety equipment. To me, this is the exact same thing as driving a car without a seatbelt. It's just plain stupid. I don't necessarily advocate such equipment when flying a Cessna 150 or a Champ, but when you fly large reciprocating single-engined airplanes that are over 60 years old, you have a VERY high probability of having either engine problems, or a fire, either of which could result in a crash or forced off-airport landing. Crashes/off-airport landings are VERY survivable with the aforementioned safety equipment, provided you are not flying over mountainous terrain.

To all of you multi-billionaires with more money than sense, do what you want, but don't come crying to me when your face has 3rd degree burns and you're disfigured for life. Yes, that has happened to people I know. Sorry if I sound a little cynical, but after having seen what a huge difference a small amount of prevention can make, it has made me very passionate about safety equipment. There are several warbird owners/operators who are WIX members who owe their lives to this philosophy.

Just my two cents!

I had a friend who flew his T-6 wearing flip flops, white bell bottomed pants (complete with grease stains and holes), a dirty white t shirt and a sweat band

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Don't touch my junk!!