SIDEWAYS LOOK You can leave your hat on By First Officer Jordan Webb, Log Board member M y mother can be hard to please at the best of times. Tough love, you could call it. Achievements of mine at school were categorised into total success or absolute irrelevance. My glee at being made the school athletics captain was met with a deflating: Shame its not a real sport. Mother 1, My Ego 0. Many of us pilots will never forget the day we were offered our first flying job: the realisation that the painstakingly long process of getting to that very moment was finally over; the overwhelming urge for a pint or to pop open a bottle of fizz in celebration; the total, utter relief. I scrutinised the email from my now employer, read it over again and again until I was beyond certain that this wasnt a wind-up or that Id misread commiserations as congratulations. I hadnt. I had to ring my mum. Oh amazing, she proclaimed, and then paused. Do you get to wear a hat? she asked, with an alarming amount of intrigue. The answer was no, which, like leading the athletics squad, meant I wasnt working for a real airline. At dinner parties and functions, my mother would parade around proudly informing her friends and colleagues, my son is a pilot, but with the caveat that hes not a proper pilot; after all, he doesnt even wear a hat. Three years into my career, while recently doing the walk-around in a windy Tenerife, not only was the sand and spray being dragged across the tarmac, but so too was a sodden skippers hat. It had been blown across from the stand next door, finally resting in a large puddle just in front of our engine pod. What a bloody pain these things are, the owner mused, traipsing across the tarmac in the downpour. You hear that mum? What a nuisance! A lot can be said of uniform snobbery within our industry. Were all guilty of those quick, judging glances in the security line as we see the blearyeyed night-stoppers heading home, or crews from another carrier crossing our path in the terminal building. Ultimately, were all cut from the same cloth. Weve all sat the exams, passed the skills tests and been grilled in the simulator hat or no hat. Examination licences for Air Trafc Controllers (ATCO s). Weekly House, Padbury Oaks 583 Bath Road, Longford, UB7 OEH our own car-parking facilities. www.heathrowmedical.com Medicals to meet EASA and CAA requirements as well as Initial, Renewal & Revalidation European Class 3 Medical Personal service with a quick turnaround for Initial, Excellent availability of appointments. Adjacent to Heathrow Airport, we have the standards of the major International civil aviation authorities including CASA, Canada, and GACA. Renewal & Revalidation Class 1 and Class 2 applications. In the same way some of us lack hats, theres no harm in pilots turning up to work with a backpack Nothing to lose For me, a hat is one less thing to lose, one less item to pack or take stock of the night before an 03.00 alarm. Nowadays, with extra items in our flight bags, such as hand sanitisers and face coverings, well soon be better off having one final checklist to run before we exit the flight deck. Ill take the COCKPIT SECURE AND FLIGHT BAG CONTENTS CHECKLIST, please skipper. Whether we wear a hat or not, theres no denying that my mothers undoubtedly jovial and tongue-in-cheek views on the importance of the hat do represent a far greater underlying stigma of the way we are seen among our peers in the industry. In the same way that some of us lack hats, theres no harm in pilots turning up to work with a backpack instead of a briefcase or trolleybag. They all serve the same function. The insinuation that us hatless, backpack-wearing pilots are scruffy is utter nonsense (and, yes, such opinions really do exist; Ive heard them first hand). One could argue a backpack is far more practical, less hassle and much better adapted to the fast-paced and dynamic industry in which we find ourselves. Much like my mothers pride in her hatless pilot son, times are evidently changing, and so, too, must our views on how we look. Im more than happy keeping my head bare, but, if you like, you can leave your hat on. Email: medicals@heathrowmedical.com Tel: 020 8528 2633