"mhquay" wrote in message
...

Shirt Tails.
There has been a long tradition in aviation related to cutting off the
shirt tails of newly soloed student pilots. One story has it that the
practice began because of the student need to clean his goggles.

Pilots had scarves to use in keeping their goggles clean but the
student had to use a shirt tail. The cutting of the shirt tail was
giving the student the symbolic scarf of a pilot.

At one time trainers were two place tandem seat airplanes. The
instructor sat in the back seat. Some trainers had a speaking tube that
worked so that you could hear

It was noisy in the airplane and the instructors learned that the way
to get the students attention and direct him was to reach under the
panel and yank on a shirttail!

At student solo, the removal of the shirt tail, eliminated the way the
instructor used for directing the student. The student was now a pilot
and didn't need the jerking on a shirttail to fly.

Both of these stories are amusing, but unlikely. If there is an older origin
for the tradition, it is in medieval knights winning their spurs and
'shavetail' lieutenants in the army. If that evolved in the 1970's to
cutting off shirt tails, then so be it. I doubt if this is the first time
the tradition appeared. I have read that cutting off the shirt tail was
something that cavalry officers did on receiving their commission.