Flight Test Tools in your Flight bag

[Shawn Coyle]

Just wondered what test pilots and flight test engineers carried with them as tools of the trade- things like cloth measuring tapes, stopwatches, etc.
I'm trying to put together a more comprehensive list and would appreciate input.
Thanx

[Genghis the Engineer]

Quiet week between courses at Mojave Shawn?


Anyhow, for what it's worth, the FT specific oddments in my flight bag:-


- Force gauge with a 1m tape measure built into it.
- Dictaphone which records on normal audio cassettes
- Magnetic pick up (plugs into dictaphone one end and tucks inside my headset at the other).
- Home made pad of blank multi-purpose test cards.
- Handheld GPS
- Digital optical tacho (although I need a new one, it broke) for checking calibration on piston-prop RPM gauges (they're usually wrong, sometimes wildly so).
- Folder full of home-made prompt cards on the basic characteristics of the various types that I fly or may fly.
- Cooper-harper flowchart.
- Sheets of graphpaper, with blank scales, cut to the size of my kneeboard.
- Roll of red PVC tape and some scissors (invaluable for as-yet unplacarded limits and reducing my mental effort in tracking them).
- A few blank copies of this (http://www.bmaa.org/upload/techdocs/2004541047280.AW_043.pdf)


In addition some of my more regular items are selected with FT at-least partially in mind:-

- My wristwatch has a built in stopwatch and a velcro strap, so it usually flies strapped to a convenient bit of airframe in front of me.
- I've yet to find the perfect kneeboard for flight testing, as yet my favourite is the "Pooleys K3 helicopter pilots kneeboard", (bottom of
this (http://www.pooleys.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Knee_Boards_29.html) page).
- A couple of generic "suits all types" checklists covering the main aircraft classes that I may find myself in charge of.
- Cheap air-band scanner.
- Scientific calculator.

G

[woxman]

I have a set of "fish" scales in my flight bag for weighing the odds and ends that I carry on the flight....

W

[idle stop]

Digital camera has been a useful development. (Sorry, no pun was intended!) At least one can see instantly whether that vital photo for the report came out as it should.

[Dave Anderson]

These are all good sugestions.
I would add a set of hand held flight control fixtures for doing step/ramp inputs.
Been out of town for three months.