PNWFlyer

don’t forget your hat?

DenainaPilot

Bro wear your hat bro. You’ll look so professional, pls wear your hat pretty plz.

PineappleXpres

Pretty fair to say it’s hard to look dignified in a wheel hat, regardless of the profession ;-)

Tippy

Agreed. Overall i actually like the uniform, color and choices are decent. But the hat is a major failure!

Yakattack

Totally agree. The uniform is basically a new pants color and tie along with a better transition jacket, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. Hat is a no thanks, although it would still probably be the case even if the new one was brilliant (which is admittedly hard to envision). I'm not a hat guy--I've never felt the need to aggrandize myself in such a manner, ancient tradition notwithstanding.

CATIII

I guess I'm a tradionalist .. the hat is part of the uniform, from the "nautical" tradition of our profression, it presents a professional appearance to most passengers and we should care about that... I wear mine but I never enforce it on my First officers (like we're apparently supposed to)..

I don't see what's wrong with the new hat, or am I looking at different online pictures than everyone else?

MinRest

The hat has not, and will not leave my closet where it will collect dust for eternity.

rickair7777

Could be. A corollary of Occam's Razor: Never automatically attribute to Malice or Conspiracy what can be explained by Sloth or Ineptitude... and we are talking about the federal gov.

Yakattack

It's fine, as far as hats go. I edited this out of my original comment but probably should have included: I hesitate to label someone a "hat wearer," as there have been many people that I enjoy flying with and have looked up to that wear the hat. I've learned not to pre-judge. However, to me, "optional" means optional, and the sneak preview of our new uniform policy is that the hat remains "encouraged but optional per the CBA" (thank you Alaska MEC once again!) I personally feel like going without it is more conducive to a collaborative environment--I've never been a fan of the "the high and the mighty" stuff, or anything like unto it. The PIC is the final authority, and that remains in force regardless of headwear. There are numerous respected flying professions that don't even wear collared shirts, let alone all the nautical accoutrements that we wear. They aren't any less professional or authoritative than we are.

Besides, you already look goofy enough on the ramp at PACV with a tie on. "Mudhole" is part of the official airport name.

CATIII

Hat optional is a good policy.