I own plenty of lightweight synthetic clothing for hiking/climbing. This
has always been great for flying sailplanes as well. I'm currently fixing

up a Pik-20E. I'll be sitting against a 40 year-old fuel tank, with no
firewall, while the 2-stroke engine slowly rattles things apart and
occasionally cracks the exhaust. This has made me rethink my clothing.
In the event of a fire, my normal synthetic attire would melt to my skin!
A Nomex flight suit would provide a bit more fire protection and there
would be plenty of pockets for survival gear. Does anyone know if
Nomex will keep you warm if it gets wet?


Nomex isn't like polypropylene where it wicks the the water from
your body to create an air insulating layer. It seems to dry faster
than cotton, but I'd say that will not keep you warm if it is wet.
Most of my past experience with wet flight suits was in hot
environments though, and I can't really recall having to deal with
a wet flight suit in the cold. If it was really cold, we had Nomex
thermal underwear and cold weather flight gear, but none of
that stuff is supposed to act like Gore-Tex, etc at all. For flying over
cold water, etc, there are anti-exposure (dry suits) that are worn
over the top of flight suits. When I went through USAF survival
school during a long ago February in Spokane, WA, we wore khaki
cotton fatigues, and not flight suits. On the other hand, when I
then later went Homestead, FL for water survival training in July,
we wore our flight suits while jumping in and out of 88 degree
water... FWIW...

RO