I'm new to the forum and learning every day.

My question regards the best choices for winter clothing when flying in small, general aviation planes. It would seem that the clothing with the best insulating and moisture wicking properties are synthetics. Of course, they are poor protection from fire. Which is the greater risk? How do military Nomex flight jackets stack up?

Thanks.

Massif makes nomex clothing including fleece that's worth considering.

I don't know about the military jackets, but the industrial stuff stands up very well.
If you buy the coveralls they are much tougher than cotton ones.
You can also buy regular jackets, parkas and pants in Nomex and just wear regular clothes underneath them.

If you buy fleece it is quite warm and provides even better flame protection than the normal Nomex cloth.

I find my Nomex fleece hoody just a little too warm most of the time.

When I flew freight every night in small planes in winter, I wore a snowmobile suit. Kept it unzipped when the heater was working, zipped up when it quit. When I got out to load/unload, it got zipped up again. Plus it had lots of pockets for misc supplies.

There was a small plane crash in Idaho 3 weeks ago. The pilot survived the crash and had to walk out for help. Part of the problem was, he was not dressed for the weather.

Dressed in shoes, blue jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, a Carhartt jacket and a baseball cap, he arrived on shore wet from the midsection down. His survival equipment was in the plane and he was unable to start a fire.

You can read the whole article here

For any back country visits....regardless of how you get there, it is important to start with the proper base layer of clothes as you never know what can happen and you can never assume that your survival gear will always be available.

I wonder if there have been any studies done that show the number of small plane crashes and of these crashes, what percentage do the planes burn on impact. I follow a lot of outdoor related emergency related news (thanks to Google RSS) and it seems to me that most small planes do not burn on impact. If this was the case, I would assume that the risk of using synthetics is low in comparison to the benefits it provides. Perhaps wool clothing would be a better choice, however I am sure that more knowledgeable people like Doug could provide better answers though.

I have been involver with aviation SAR for over 30 years and have been involved with about 20 crashes. Of them I can only remember three that burnt on impact, two where business jets and one was a military trainer. It seams about two thirds are not survivable crashes. Of the third that are most of the time the victims walk away. Coupled with that the general poor performance of the heaters in light aircraft I would worry more about warmth that fire protection. I like the idea of a snowmobile suit, perhaps a fleece jacket and pants with a surplus nomex flight suit over them.