Clothes for gliderpilots

I love the idea of specialized soaring clothing but $300 bucks 😄 (plus Europe to USA shipping) for soaring pants is, at least initially, a bit shocking. Most of my "gliding" pants end up with grease on them (yes I wear an apron!). Within a season they are essentially grease spot covered, grungy painter pants. Therefore I am reluctant to wear anything valuable near the glider. The thigh windows in your $300 soaring pants are really nice but I like to be able to write notes and flip thru several pages quickly (checklist or task list for example). Your pants are only for easy viewing of pre inserted material for reading only. Making any changes to that material would require me to open the zipper and get the paper out, flip thru to what I need, the refold and re-insert back into the clear pocket while in flight. I'm not sure that I could ever be neat and organized enough to get everything I need into those two pockets while flying...

Here is what I have been using (similar) and it works well for me. I found a pair of Patagonia "cargo pants" that fit great and were on clearance ($80, shock cord ankles, ventilation zippers, tons of pockets, etc). I sewed in large Velcro pads onto each thigh as well as a set of "belt loops" around each thigh to keep the thigh clips (http://www.sportys.com/pilotShop/product/8782) in place. With this arrangement I can prearrange several things and flip the pages easily. I also have an ipad thigh strap (also sporty's pilot shop) which actually worked great (best actually). My iPad is currently illegal in US contests becuase it is LTE enabled 😞.

Anyway, these pants allow me to have all of my important info handy and I can also write notes easily on a notepad (very important to me). I probably have $100 into these pants including two Sporty's thigh pad straps. You can get great outdoor cargo pants (REI) for under $50 these days. The sewing took less than an hour. I'll post a picture sometime.

Good luck with your company! I think you have a good product but at an extreme price. Even top end sailing pants (bibs) is not even that expensive in the US (Musto, Henry Loyd, Zhick, etc).

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your feedback.
If we get the same good response like in europe, we try to find a reseller in the US. To avoid expensive shipping and returns. And to make it easier for clients.
It was never the approach to make the most cheapest clothes. Patagonia or Northface are probably the biggest outdoor clothing companys and they produce up to 30'000 pieces from the same pants with a good quality, long story short we will never reach their prices.

If you take a procuct from arcteryx or even north face with the same quality of the fabric and same amount of features you will see that we're not far away from their prices.

About the pockets- I have to make a correction- you can use them for writing, I note there frequencies, transponder codes etc. You have even a holder for a pen. Here you can find high res pictures of all features:
http://www.milvus.aero/produkte/bravo/

As you can certainly see on the linked page there are plenty more other features than the kneepockets.

I appreciate all the comments so far, it helps us to progress.

Daniel

That is a really, really impressive web page describing these soaring pants.. I'm impressed. They are very sharp and clearly a lot of thought went into them!

50% discount for first 5 US customers ;-)!

Just kidding. Again, good luck and thanks for the info.

Sean



On Monday, December 8, 2014 2:33:52 PM UTC-5, Daniel Baumli wrote:
Hi Sean,

Thanks for your feedback.
If we get the same good response like in europe, we try to find a reseller in the US. To avoid expensive shipping and returns. And to make it easier for clients.
It was never the approach to make the most cheapest clothes. Patagonia or Northface are probably the biggest outdoor clothing companys and they produce up to 30'000 pieces from the same pants with a good quality, long story short we will never reach their prices.

If you take a procuct from arcteryx or even north face with the same quality of the fabric and same amount of features you will see that we're not far away from their prices.

About the pockets- I have to make a correction- you can use them for writing, I note there frequencies, transponder codes etc. You have even a holder for a pen. Here you can find high res pictures of all features:
http://www.milvus.aero/produkte/bravo/

As you can certainly see on the linked page there are plenty more other features than the kneepockets.

I appreciate all the comments so far, it helps us to progress.

Daniel

Hi Sean,

Thank you!
Yeah right, it's not just a pants. It's a soaring pants with a lot of features especialy for glider pilots, with features you won't find on any other pants. Maybe people get a wrong impression in our PDF flyer, i have to check that.

Maybe we make a sweepstakes one day, that would be 100% discount for one person

Daniel

Include a 100$ bill in each front pocket and you got a deal.

On Sunday, December 7, 2014 11:57:45 AM UTC-5, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
I usually get my soaring attire from thrift stores and mountaineering shops:

* Loose white cotton shirt, epoxy stained
* 1990's Regional contest T-shirt (preferably John Shelton designs)
* Rock climbing pants (REI or Royal Robbins)
* Hiking boots
* Short-billed baseball cap, no button

bahaha! 90's contest shirt. it's so true.

http://performancesoaring.com/index.html


$49 Shorts, $59 pants...!!!!!!



Cookie

No Cookie, no. They look like my grandma tried to solve a gliding attire problem with a tablecloth and a sewing machine! :O When flying in warmer climes, cargo shorts from Walmart Aerospace do me just fine. The North Face pants are on my 'checkout when passing a store' list (thanks Darryl!). Whilst Daniels product looks good from both functionality and style perspectives, it's just way too expensive. Make them convertible and I think USD$150 wouldn't be out of order. If that can't be achieved, perhaps production in China or Bangladesh like the rest of the world is in order. Either eay, good luck with your venture!

Casey

LOL....

I gotta agree with you.....

I think we are seeing both extremes of the price and design spectrum here....something in the middle is what it should be!

Cookie





On Friday, December 26, 2014 11:16:36 PM UTC-5, wrote:
No Cookie, no. They look like my grandma tried to solve a gliding attire problem with a tablecloth and a sewing machine! :O When flying in warmer climes, cargo shorts from Walmart Aerospace do me just fine. The North Face pants are on my 'checkout when passing a store' list (thanks Darryl!). Whilst Daniels product looks good from both functionality and style perspectives, it's just way too expensive. Make them convertible and I think USD$150 wouldn't be out of order. If that can't be achieved, perhaps production in China or Bangladesh like the rest of the world is in order. Either eay, good luck with your venture!

Casey

On Sunday, 7 December 2014 at 10:13:21 UTC, wrote:
Dear gliderpilots,

I don't want to abuse your forum for big advertising. But since our clothes are something new it might interest you.
So just post the link to our website. If you have any questions fell free to write me.

www.milvus.aero/english

Have a nice Advent Sunday!

Daniel

hi guys, a new company, small but reasonable does gliding clothes. www.yawstring.com
I havent seen any trousers for sale yet but am sure these will feature soon. I agree milvus is the price of avionics, not a pair of trouser.
rgrs,
Pierre