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SHIPCHIEF

Well Known Member
A shift from Nomex, but still about personal fire protection;
I've got a heavy (6 Oz.?) Nomex flight suit, I agree it's thin.
So I've been wondering about leather. Welder's use leather gloves, boots and jacket. I also use welders gloves to add wood to my fireplace and mess with the fire.
Welder's togs aren't very fashionable, but they do indicate effectivness.
So leather flight jackets come to mind. Which styles offer the best coverage, and which leathers are the most fire resistant?
Is Horse or Cow hide more resistant than Goat or Lamb?
Is a Mouton collar on a G-1 fire retardant or flammable?
Would a longer waist jacket like a B-3 bomber give better coverage.
The designers of the great flight jackets must have considered fire protection? It's always been one of the great dangers of combat flight.
Leather boots: over on the Nomex thread someone mentioned that it's hard to find leather boots with leather soles.
I did a google search for Fire fighters boots, and there is a large selection of fire retardant boots with several vendors. They don't limit to bunker gear boots. SWAT-tactical-EMS boots look like a possibility; not too cockpit unfriendly.
 
Serious?

I have to ask... are you serious?

You arent really thinking of wearing welding gloves,supercross riding leathers and misc other bunker gear in you plane??? :eek:

Really????
 
I have been wearing nomex flight suits for work for well over 25 years, but I always joke with people that they make all the difference between an open and closed casket funeral ;) I would assume leather would be about the same.
 
Rick;In a word: no.
I'm wondering how you add seconds or minutes to your life during an in flight fire.
I'm getting near done on my RV-8, and I would like the best reasonable protection for the first series of flights.
Roasted feet or legs has come up a fair bit here and on the Cessna forum and one RV-8 pilot jumped out of his plane about 400 ft agl because of a fire.
A leather jacket over Nomex flight suit over cotton shirt, pants and underware seems like pretty standard fair. Fire retardant race car or EMS boots that look alot like light weight hiking boots, but offer more protection. Elk hide work gloves can take quite a few seconds directly in the fireplace, yet still have good dexterity.
I'm asking about reasonable, attainable protection for those most dangerous flights in the beginning.
Glenn;
Gee that doesn't sound too good....
 
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Stick with Nomex

Leather suits might be fine for auto or motorcycle racing but I don't think they are a good idea. Leather offers protection but shrinks with heat. Check out your welder's gloves after you've handled some cut offs or welded pieces for a while.

Leather gloves will shrink around the fingers in a fire and can possibly shut off blood supply in the fingers or hand after being in a fire. I am pretty sure thats why the USAF Nomex gloves are leather on only one side.

Air Force flight boots are leather, probably for durability and have special soles that are (sorta) non slippery on metal surfaces especially when contaminated with oil or fuel. Egress from a burning or downed aircraft may require kicking your way out. No sneakers for me.

Dave A.
6A build
 
Race car tech

The thought of tuning a radio wearing welder's gloves amuses me. I have worn parts of my race car gear in my '8' with no issues. The gloves work well for tuning radios and keeping warm, fortunately I have not had to test them beyond that. The nomex shoes are designed to be pushing pedals and are quite comfortable. Here is a source with good pricing. No connection, just a customer. http://www.pyrotect.com/home.php They also have closeout specials on eBay.

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAA FAAST Team Member
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
Thanks;
Dave;
Good point. Leather DOES shrink when it's exposed to alot of heat. It gets hard and loses flexibility too.
John;
Thanks for the Pyrotect link.
I remember Peter Townsend, the author of Duel of Eagles wrote about fire in the cockpit, stating that one of his pilots wore welders gloves. But then, they didn't have a lot of choices.
It looks like you can get some basic protection from a combination of military flight clothing and race car clothing.
The prices aren't really high, and you can look good doing it. ;)
I have a few pieces I've collected over the years:
CWU-27/P 6 Oz Nomex flight suit
CWU-64/P Heavily Insulated Nomex flight suit
Nomex CVC Balaclava
A-2 and B-3 flight jackets
Not too sure how suitable some will be...maybe if I test fly on really cold days?
 
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Information on leather/race apparel

I looked in vain to find the years-old discussion on race safety equipment that addressed leather on apexspeed.com. It's there somewhere.

But, an overview is here:

http://www.vscda.org/about/apparel.php

To the best of my knowledge, most racing gloves/shoes that incorporate leather do so only on the "wear areas" and are designed so that shrinkage will destroy the glove, rather than crush hands and feet.

Unfortunately in aircraft there can be a much longer time period before getting stopped and out of the conflagration. I would be concerned about breathing, too.
 
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