Ppl equipment while training

[Seanmul89]

Hi all,
So what all equipment did you use in and outside of the cockpit to make things a little more comfortable for yourself?
Did any of you use an a4 size kneeboard or smaller?

[Pilot DAR]

Welcome Sean,

Don't be too worried about having all of the right equipment when you fly. It's easy to have too much equipment, costing too much, and cluttering a cockpit, or going unused. I knee board is handy, though I've never used one. A4 would be much too large, consider the smallest one you can buy. Fly a while first, and see what you miss, then consider buying. Ask your instructor, then ask he/she if you really need what they recommend - maybe you don't, at least yet.

Once you're flying IFR, recording clearances and such does increase what you must have to be properly equipped.

[Curlytips]

A5. Elasticated round leg and velcro fastened. 2 penholder on side. Clip at top to hold plogs, and folds open, so that you can keep airfield plates in see-through pockets inside. Good investment - still using after 30 years.

[Heston]

What curlytips said. Nothing else until your instructor tells you that you need it.
Though (in the UK) it's worth getting the CAA half million chart for your area of the country and spending many hours learning the symbols from the chart legend.
Buy anything else you fancy. No problem. But be careful not to look a poser. Especially avoid expensive flight bags- a Tesco carrier bag is just as good.

[Seanmul89]

Thanks guys, I use the a5 size with a strap, have my map and few pens few small things, I've had to cancel today for flying due to weather, I've a few hours logged alright but I was just curious how some of you were kitted out during your ppl phase :)

[Heston]

Thanks guys, I use the a5 size with a strap, have my map and few pens few small things, I've had to cancel today for flying due to weather, I've a few hours logged alright but I was just curious how some of you were kitted out during your ppl phase :)

Sounds about right to me. Best of luck!

[Pilot DAR]

I got into a fellow's 182 to fly a flight check with him. A very well equipped, partly glass cockpit aircraft, with an additional: kneeboard on the pilot with an Ipad strapped to it, an Ipad on the control wheel, and an Ipad on a bendy stand fitted to a box in between the seats, which held heavens know what else. This pilot was not IFR qualified.

I pointed out that as the checking pilot, I could not reach the engine controls at all (third Ipad), and his reach was interfered. I insisted that Ipad three be removed before we flew, and unclipped fairly easily. He was over equipped.

In contrast, I once had to deliver a open cockpit aircraft a few hundred miles. I carried three photocopies of the relevant chart area (so I could have two blow away), and a wrist watch. I did just fine....

[Mike Flynn]

I got into a fellow's 182 to fly a flight check with him. A very well equipped, partly glass cockpit aircraft, with an additional: kneeboard on the pilot with an Ipad strapped to it, an Ipad on the control wheel, and an Ipad on a bendy stand fitted to a box in between the seats, which held heavens know what else. This pilot was not IFR qualified.

I pointed out that as the checking pilot, I could not reach the engine controls at all (third Ipad), and his reach was interfered. I insisted that Ipad three be removed before we flew, and unclipped fairly easily. He was over equipped.

In contrast, I once had to deliver a open cockpit aircraft a few hundred miles. I carried three photocopies of the relevant chart area (so I could have two blow away), and a wrist watch. I did just fine....

I agree with that. I learnt to fly helicopters in Perth,Australia with no doors. Cockpit management meant little or nothing apart from a chart you sat on.

Situational awareness should be taught long before the toys are allowed.

[Seanmul89]

I totally agree with what you're saying :)
I'm not going to that extent lol

[artschool]

dont forget white shirt and gold epaulettes!

[TheOddOne]

and a wrist watch. I did just fine....

There was a growing habit a little while ago amongst the young not to wear a watch, instead relying on the (then new) smartphone for the time.

I joined a student for a navex and noticed the lack of timing device. He showed me his phone with the time on it, then tucked it under his thigh while we took off and set course. At the first waypoint, I asked him to note down the time, he whipped out his phone which of course had turned itself off. I lent him my watch. When we landed, I said you're not flying again without a watch. He spent less than £10 and got a fine timepiece, which I suspect he only wore for flying...

TOO
ps I've yet to find a C150 or PA28 with a working clock. Fortunately, the ANO allows the substitution of a personal timepiece.

[piperboy84]

Hi all,
So what all equipment did you use in and outside of the cockpit to make things a little more comfortable for yourself?

Patience, humility, thirst for knowledge, eagerness to lean, respect for your instructors experience and perhaps pencil & paper

[B2N2]

Patience, humility, thirst for knowledge, eagerness to lean, respect for your instructors experience and perhaps pencil & paper

BRILLIANT!!!

:D

[Curlytips]

Definitely need a good timer. In my early days, the simplest was to buy a Casio digital watch (about a fiver - probably similar today) take the wristband off, and velcro it to the centre of the yoke. Perfect for brakes off and on, and also had a timer function. Cheap!

More recently, a digital kitchen timer clipped to the side of the screen using a phone holder suction device (bought on motorway services) is larger and has two timer devices. Boots used to do a really good one, but now you need to surf to find one. Current one I use is "Brannan dual timer and clock". Same as old Boots.........

[A and C]

When my ( late ) wife decided to learn to fly she was unfortunate enough to walk into CABAIR these people sold her a flight case full of all sorts of overpriced stuff most of it never got used.

Being new to aviation she did not pick up on fact that the whole operation was just designed to extract as much money from the punters as they could, this attitude continued with the flying order book written in the same vain.

She was about to give up on flying when a friend suggested a move to another flying club, she never looked back and ended up owning two aircraft and putting about 700 hours in her log book before illness took her medical away.

The moral of the story seems to be don’t trust anyone who try’s to sell you more than you need ( usualy wrapped up in a flash package ).

[340drvr]

Agree with above posts, you really don't need very much.
You probably already have one, or maybe your flight school supplies it for the trainers, but a good quality headset would be at the top of the list.

[gondukin]

I'm trying to think what I've invested in...

From gliding, I have sunglasses (about my 10th pair at the rate i break them), a hat, a cheap digital wristwatch, a chart, some pens for the chart, a ruler marked in nautical miles, a glider pilot's licence, and an FRTOL.

Since starting my NPPL, so far I have invested in a logbook, an A5 clipboard, some Pooley's books and an Air Quiz subscription.

This collection of items lives in an old rucksack along with old food wrappers, gloves and half-used bottles of suncream.

[n5296s]

This collection of items lives in an old rucksack along with old food wrappers, gloves and half-used bottles of suncream.
I find this list hard to believe. No old batteries? When I switched flight bags a year or so ago, I found enough of them to fill a plastic sandwich bag.

As far as what I do use: folding A4-ish kneeboard (charts to the left, notes to the right), iPad on a yoke mount. Pens, couple of torches/flashlights for night flying. Headset (Bose A20) of course. Pretty much nothing else that I take out for most flights. I carry a generic PoH for my plane in my flightbag (not sure why since there's one in the plane anyway), and the Pilots' Guide to California Airports (Pooley's equivalent) since it's nice to have on paper even though they stopped issuing paper updates a couple of years back. An E6B and aviation ruler for old times' sake. Check(que)book, you never know. I have a pulse oximeter but haven't been up far enough to need it in several years - not much use in the UK anyway. Spare key.

Nearly everything that the pilot supplies outfits try to sell you is unnecessary. Not to say I haven't fallen for quite a lot of it over the years.

[Sam Rutherford]

A5 kneeboard, still use it after 30 years!

[mary meagher]

A bottle of water, a torch (flashlight), and a current chart - I cut up the chart - no use including France or Scotland if I'm staying local....and a baby blanket. Gliders don't include heaters.....

And in the back of the Supercub, the operating handbook. Flying with a friend, with the Supercub doors open on a lovely warm day, suddenly the book (which had been forgotten in the back luggage area for years) came apart in the draft! My passenger managed to gather all but three of the pages, we found one on the tail after landing, but the other two were lost forever.

[Grass_Strip_Goat]

3 Axis Microlight.

Chinagraph on a long stretchy elastic hanging from cockpit roof.
Current Chart.
Skydemon on a 7 inch tablet on the panel.
Handheld radio clipped to panel.
Headset
Inexpensive wristwatch.

I like being "over equipped" compared to my flexwing days :)

[B2N2]

Don’t buy anything before you start flying.
Be patient and frugal and you’ll find people giving stuff away or on the cheap.
Long forgotten boxes in the back of the hangar, nobody remembers who owns them. Treasure hunt.

[jamesgrainge]

I use an A4 kneeboard, with A5 clear plastic sleeves on a binder, filled with pretyped paper, with boxes for any information I receive during the flight and appropriate spaces left. I then use fine non permanent markers to write down anything pertinent on the plastic. Really cuts down the memory workload from behind the controls and it doesn't waste paper. Aerodrome charts go underneath in A4 for easy viewing. And then it has a clip on the right for PLogs etc. I've found this invaluable in making flights easily manageable.

Lightspeed Zulu 3 (absolutely invaluable, the clarity of ATC communication compared to school headset is incredible, as is comfort). Checklist, watch, map, diversion plotter.

And the obligatory pair of Aviators, of course ;-)

[jan99]

ppl general:
- A5 kneeboard
- large nurse's watch (I don't like stuff on wrists and hands)
- cap (I don't like sunglasses much)
- head set (probably supplied)

specific for ppl exam flight:
....pilotshop.nl/contents/en-us/p408_Wind_Protractor.html
Never used it since but excellent (easy and quick) for the one occasion when one is required to supply heading and time to a mid flight alternate.

Making and learning an exhaustive pre-flight checklist (including documents etc. and bathroom visit) was useful too as I remember.

[The_Pink_Panther]

Sean,
Apart from the knee board you've already got, one of my first purchases was a headset. The school provided one, but it was something I wanted (rather than needed) and bought a mid-spec pair of David Clark's. Glad I did, and still use them to this day.

The only other things that I got early on and still use are:
- my flight bag; I got one of the first Brightline bags when they were launched (back when there was only one version). There are a stack of different ones to choose from now. It kept all my maps, books, notes and flying stuff together and easily accessible.
- flying jacket; (not a big showy sheepskin thing before you start!), one of the cheap Transair things. I like fresh air in the cockpit, but don't like being cold - a regular occurrence learning in a drafty 152. The cut of the jacket means it sits comfortably on my waist, there's plenty of arm movement and there's no collar to interfere with my headset when I look around. I also make use of the pen holder on the arm because I found putting pens back on my knee-board a bit of a fiddle.

[And no, before anyone starts, I don't wear it anywhere else apart from flying because that's not my thing. Yes, I really do take another coat with me so even if I'm just stopping for groceries on my way to/from the airfield I'm not strutting around in a flying jacket. It's bought for a purpose and serves that purpose]

TPP

[funfly]

Here's a tip; Don't bother with a stopwatch, get a wrist watch with a visible sweep second hand (not a Brietling it's far too cluttered and you don't need stop/start buttons)) and time parts of a minute by just looking at the second hand and noting where it is etc. This is far easier and takes less effort than clicking a stop watch all the time.
FF

[Piper.Classique]

In a super cub, paper map on the back seat (under the cushion or handed to the passenger if I have one so it can't blow away). A6 kneepad, small tablet running sky demon duck taped to the kneepad. Plot in my shirt pocket, pen on the kneepad. Watch velcroed to the panel so I can change it when the battery dies. Spare glasses in the map pocket with anything else potentially useful such as airfield visual charts and a bottle of water. Don't often need the paper map.
In a balloon (hopper, no basket) the tablet goes in a map case round my neck, altimeter on my wrist, radio if I take it in my pocket, with safety string. Ditto phone for retrieve. Glasses in a pocket on the harness, in a very solid hard case. So far I've not trashed the tablet on landing, but I have managed to lose a phone, at least until crew called me on it. Paper map stuffed inside my shirt or in an under seat pocket not accessible in flight. I can always get it out after landing.