Originally Posted by
flensr
Any pilot who might experience weather or temperature extremes will be well prepared if they're wearing a leather flying jacket. Because that's what those jackets were designed for. Flying.
Right. Flying. In open cockpit biplanes. The sole reason for leather was protection against the slipstream. In that era, leather was the only material that was truly windproof. Unless you're flying an open cockpit aircraft, a leather jacket is pure adornment, and not particularly practical adornment. The uniform at my airline includes an A-2 jacket. I was issued one in indoc. It's hanging in a closet. I don't think I've ever worn it other than to try it on. A leather jacket is a pain to drag around on the road, it's heavy, it doesn't fold compactly, and above all, it's not particularly warm. If you're actually experiencing the lower range of those " temperature extremes " you cite, then a leather jacket is about the last thing you'd want to have. It used to crack me up seeing the Horizon pilots wandering around on a Deadhorse turn in the winter in their leather jackets, looking completely miserable, back when Horizon was flying in Alaska.
Look, if you choose to adorn yourself with a leather jacket because of the way it looks, or the image you think it gives you, and you value decoration over practicality, that's cool, knock yourself out. But, when you try to claim that a leather jacket is some sort of practical necessity, you've crossed over into la-la land.