Went to le Touquet on Saturday to stock up with Christmas cheer, so the weight and balance was crucial. Checked the weight of the flight bag - 16 lbs! Had to leave it behind.
The Pooleys is a heavy beast, but I also have a folder for all my old Plogs, which I use to look up the en route frequencies of places I've been to before. This now weighs almost as much as the Pooleys as it is also stuffed with landing fee and fuel receipts etc. Might just take the Pooleys on its own in future, its got lots more frequencies listed out and they're in alphabetical order.
One extra bit of kit which has just wheedled its way into the bag is an ice scraper/squeegee to get all the frost off the wings and elevators - certainly needed that on Saturday! Oh, and there's the Maglite to help find one's way across the quagmire where we have to park our aircraft when we've been night flying. And a plotter I never use, plus those dinky little edging strips for holding a map folded, which fall off as soon as you settle down in the cockpit. I feel a New Year's Resolution coming on!
Personally I blame it all on Transair for sending out those glossy catalogues in the flying magazines with all those wonderful gadgets... have you seen the one that works out the circuit pattern compass bearings for you?