I do as my hands sweat a lot, but was worried about being considered some sort of poseur when I started. On talking to the CFI at Old Buck about it, he said that it didn’t bother him at all, as long as I was comfortable. He went on to mention someone he had trained in the past who, having been a racing driver at some point in his life, didn’t like to fly unless he was wearing racing driver’s gloves.

Ive never worried about what others think. We abide by military rules, I am amazed by how many GA pilots do not ‘dress to survive’.

The RAF rule for immersion suits was 12 degC IIRC, whereas 15 for FAA. I did a pool drill in normal flying kit at 15 and 12 degC and now whenever over water I wear an immersion suit. 15deg was horrible! The services have excellent survival videos which help no end to focus the mind on what matters. Regarding gloves, well if you never wear any other part of AEA, wear gloves! The fingers are so important in any survival situation and require protecting.

I would suggest strongly that any flight over water (where you cannot glide or auto to land) requires proper AEA; immersion suit with adequate thermals, gloves and LSJ, a dinghy would also be useful. I forget the exact figures, but in water below 10degC fingers become numb and useless in about a minute….cape leather extends the useful time. Fingers are so important for operating beacons, zippers, hauling onto wreckage/dinghy etc…..anyway I am probably preaching to the converted anyway.

As aircraft have associated unpleasant liquids, gloves also protect against that..