• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Enter thread only with gloves on

Supposedly .... 35+ years ago :sleep_125 .... using bleach or fabric softener destroyed any residual fire-retardant properties of our green Nomex bags ... but it sure as hell worked for cleaning and felt better around the neck ....

So we did it. :D
 
Yeah, they tell us not to dry them, too. Yaaaaawwwwwnnnn. In a severe cockpit fire I will be the guy directly below the chute (in 1.2 seconds...). Hot enough to need flame retardent=hot enough to pull the handle.
 
Isn't the flame-retardant property of flightsuits and gloves a feature of the fabric itself, not something that gets washed away, or vaporized in the dryer? It is not impervious to flame, like asbestos or something, but has to get very hot before it burns up and burns into ash, vice melting.

I used to go glove free in the -46 whenever I could, but since I transitioned to the V-22 I got used to the feel of gloves. Especially now that there's a thumbwheel on my left hand with 1/4" deep knurling on it, I need a glove there, and one-handed glove action, a la Michael Jackson, just isn't cool. The only exception is when I teach a sim, since the instructor control screen is a touchscreen above the right seat, which, for reasons I can't quite comprehend is only sensitive to bare hands, not gloved ones.
 
phrogdriver said:
Isn't the flame-retardant property of flightsuits and gloves a feature of the fabric itself, not something that gets washed away, or vaporized in the dryer? It is not impervious to flame, like asbestos or something, but has to get very hot before it burns up and burns into ash, vice melting.
Click to expand...

That's my understanding of it. The nomex/aramid is a fiber, not a sprayed on layer as I was taught in API. It isn't going to get removed by drying anymore than cotton would. I think this is another case of bad gouge starting in API in fresh, moldable minds, and then sticking their in lieu of the actual truth.

Just looked at a flightsuit tag, it says you can dry them. It just says don't use fabrics softener, bleach, etc. I'm guessing the chemicals in there interact with the aramid fibers and break them down or something (i'm not a chemist).
 
Pags said:
IIt just says don't use fabrics softener, bleach, etc. I'm guessing the chemicals in there interact with the aramid fibers and break them down or something (i'm not a chemist).
Click to expand...

Dang, that sucks, because bleach is the easiest way to make them soft and comfortable!
 
Pags said:
That's my understanding of it. The nomex/aramid is a fiber, not a sprayed on layer as I was taught in API. It isn't going to get removed by drying anymore than cotton would. I think this is another case of bad gouge starting in API in fresh, moldable minds, and then sticking their in lieu of the actual truth.

Just looked at a flightsuit tag, it says you can dry them. It just says don't use fabrics softener, bleach, etc. I'm guessing the chemicals in there interact with the aramid fibers and break them down or something (i'm not a chemist).
Click to expand...

My intel-honed google-fu is strong today: more than you ever wanted to know about a comparison by the Navy between fire-retardant treated cotton uniforms and nomex:
http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA201011&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Summary? Laundering a nomex uniform 15 times (in a ship-board laundry, no less) had no impact on it's fire retardant properties. Interestingly, the 15 washings didn't hurt the FRT cotton either. (But you shouldn't bleach your flight suit - doesn't hurt the fire-resistance, but does lower it's physical strength.)

Irrelevat factoid: I've been inside the only Nomex factory in North America (outside Richmond, VA). So I've got that going for me....
 
Pags said:
That's my understanding of it. The nomex/aramid is a fiber, not a sprayed on layer as I was taught in API. It isn't going to get removed by drying anymore than cotton would. I think this is another case of bad gouge starting in API in fresh, moldable minds, and then sticking their in lieu of the actual truth.
Click to expand...
I think there is some sort of sprayed on layer, because the last time I got new bags, they'd get a weird chemical smell to them when they got wet. No clue what it was.
 
A4sForever said:
Supposedly .... 35+ years ago :sleep_125 .... using bleach or fabric softener destroyed any residual fire-retardant properties of our green Nomex bags ... but it sure as hell worked for cleaning and felt better around the neck ....

So we did it. :D
Click to expand...

If only they made some article of clothing that could be worn around the neck that would prevent chafing :D

Any one feel that the different 'brands' of flight suits have a different feel to them? my newer ones seem to hold onto wrinkles and, well, as mentioned earlier, has a funny smell to them.
 
jazzdude said:
Any one feel that the different 'brands' of flight suits have a different feel to them? my newer ones seem to hold onto wrinkles and, well, as mentioned earlier, has a funny smell to them.
Click to expand...
They have different lengths, feels, frigain you name it. The standardization for flight suits is absolutely ridiculous. The 42L I got issued 4 years ago is about 3 inches longer than the 42L I just got. I spend the majority of my life trying on and turning in flight suits because I'm tall and these things are made for midgets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top