Contents of the average PPL Flight Case
 

I am 12 hours into my PPL training and will soon be investing in the various components required for the 2nd half of my training (flight computer, charts, protractor etc etc).

I am assuming that at this stage I will want to look at purchasing a flight case, however, they seem rather large for a relatively small number of items being required.

taking into consideration requirements during training and then additional equipment once qualified, what does the average contents of a flight case look like?

Don't purchase a flight case - a carrier bag, or something inexpensive from the local market will work fine.

What you need will probably look something like:

- Chart
- VFR guide / Pooleys / equivalent
- Ruler & protractor
- Whizz wheel
- Calculator
- Collection of pens and pencils
- Sunglasses
- Spare paper / PLOGS / etc
- Checklist
- (Unused) sick bag.
- Handheld GPS
- Torch
- Fuel tester

And leave space for your headset and kneeboard.

G

As with any bag, it has the tendency to fill up with useless stuff until it's full or too heavy to carry.

In that respect, you will probably want the smallest bag that can hold:
- Kneeboard
- A minimal set of charts, flight guide, other paperwork
- Logbook
- Headset
- License & ID
- Ruler, protractor, flight computer, pen&pencil
- Fuel tester, some old rags to wipe stuff, dipstick
- Hi-viz jacket (sadly required all too often)
- Bottle of water and a packet of biscuits or something like that
- Sunglasses, spare glasses
- Possibly your GPS, Icom, PCAS, PLB (if you have any of those)

I've got the AFE soft pilot bag and it works just fine. I can even cram in a change of clothes if absolutely necessary.

(Just checked the AFE web site and that particular bag is no longer listed, but a picture is currently under the "Free Competition" header on the right hand side of the page.)

Charts for wherever you happen to be going
GPS
Kneeboard for plog and plates
Licence
Sickbags if carrying passengers
Sunglasses (spare glasses if required)

After passing test you won't need whizz wheel calculator or ruler, because you'll flight plan on the web with Skydemon and use GPS

Ducks to avoid incoming........

The contents of your bag might depend on whether you are male or female:

Male: Everything you think you'll need. Similar to lists above.

Female: Everything you will need - ever - along with anything anyone else who wants something at some point in the future will ever need .

Funnily enough though, both bags are of the same size. :hmm:

More or less all of the things listed here go into my flight bag (including spare socks, pants, and toothbrush just in case:}). There are a few extras that were added after further training and ratings but not important to begin with.

I'll disagree with Big G up top. Having a 'Flight Case' keeps things orderly, and easier to lump about as a oner. You don't have to purchase cases that wouldn't look out of place in the over-sized pile of baggage at Heathrow like airline drivers. It's not a willy-waving competition either, it's whatever works for you. I think mine is about the size of gym holdall and costed ~£35 so not expensive. I've also seem some people with a very organised laptop case that was deep enough to fit in a headset.

(Little) G ;)

Flight case? How very posh.

I only have five or so thousand hours so probably not experienced enough to comment. But all I have is my Bose headset case that contains spare batteries and my sunglasses........

I don't own a kneeboard either......

Reckon someone will put me in the 'heavy' category for what it's worth, mine is a Sporty's flight bag filled with:

1. Beacon
2. Spare pair of glasses
3. Skydemon GPS
4. Chart(s)
5. Kneeboard
6. Stopwatch
7. POH
8. AFE flight guide
9. HiVis
10. Whizzwheel
11. Pencils and Fine permanent markers
12. Logbook (always try to fill it in same time as the techlog when I land home)
13. Handheld radio (charged)
14. Ruler/protractor combo
15. Lockyears
and finally and embarrassingly 16. Boots nail varnish removing pads - for rubbing out the permanent marker on the chart if required (honest, I don't do my nails when the autopilot is on).

Sickbags, Fuel tester and fuel dipper all live in the aircraft. Though an instructor once advised me to pop a sickbag in your kneeboard during the pre-flight if carrying passengers.

I also have an A4 wallet book for overseas flights which contains all the documents you need, insurance etc, together with a bunch of GA report forms and all the plates of airfields on the Dutch and French coast (in case of weather probs on way home).

Some might consider all this over the top, but what I like about this approach is that when I pick up my flight bag (if I can lift it), I KNOW I've got everything I need. It's a bit of a drive to the airfield and I want to do it once rather than thrice!

Ah, well. The question was about what a new PPL needs. My own flight bag, one of about a dozen free conference bags I've been given but not yet broken contains pretty much the same as 2H2F's above, with the exception of Lockyears, which hasn't been updated for years so I leave it at home. I also usually have a folder of 'just in case' instrument approach plates and a length of emergency loo roll.
G

Genghis the emergency loo roll is inspired. No wonder you are a moderator!

Respect. 2H2FA

Depends where you fly I guess. I've always got loo roll in my backpack, because I've several times visited places where it turns out to be necessary, but the loos at most of the local burger run joints are better than that :)

My bag (which is a standard floppy briefcase-type thing without any mark-up due to being called a "flight case") contains

- pens, pencils, rubber etc
- clipboard, PLOG for the flight, pieces of paper with useful magic numbers (performance, W&B etc) for the club aircraft
- nav instruments (ruler, protractor, whizz wheel, gadget for plotting position from VOR/DME fix on IMC tests) (none of which, apart from the last during IMC tests, are used in the aircraft)
- half mil chart, local & diversion approach plates, whatever seems like a good idea printed off from the destination airfield's web site
- Pooleys
- spare glasses

and that's about it apart from

- a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten about and never use

which obviously you don't need.

Amen to that.

Somewhere in my bag there's one of those expensive, big cigars that come in its own case. It was a gift at a charity event and somehow ended up in the bag. That was over a year ago. And I don't even smoke...:=

I have a headset bag which I got free somehwere containing a headset, GPS, bit of paper with useful frequencies on it, pen-on-a-lanyard (to hand around my neck. I also carry a chart (marked up if I'm going anywhere) and a hand-held radio. In my flying suit pockets go wallet, short chinagraph, sunglasses, camera, licence. My reading glasses hang around my neck as ever.

If I'm taking a passenger, I take in addition another (free!) headset bag containing a headset and a sick bag.

Argos soft pilot case item 285/8542 - £24.99 I keep in car/home office with my instructor and examiner notes / paperwork and Pooleys etc.. I then have a soft USAF style military helment bag with stuff for flight like plates, map, headset, spare specs etc.. Treat those going about carrier bags or why do you need anything at all to go flying with a pinch of salt - it is quite sensible to get something to keep essential kit in, just keep it light and to the minimum needed.

Flight bags shrink with flight time and experience.

When flying away for a holiday bag is slightly fuller but on one day flights I carry:

- headphones
- kneeboard (to jot down take off and landing times)
- pen (to jot down take off and landing times)
- chart (or piece of chart) for area overflown
- approach plate if available
- time ruler (to give estimates to ATC - don't have gps)
- licence and medical
- sunglasses

Once upon a time I bought a student starter pack with a flight case. I have to this day not used it once because it is far too big. Instead it serves as a place to stick flying stuff I'm not using. What I generally use to carry stuff in is a homo-satchel a.k.a courier bag, which is goldilocks size. I did use the ASA flight case for a while which was fine until the strap broke (it was American so I wasn't surprised it didn't last), but any courier-type bag will do and will work nicely with a fold flat headset. Other headsets tend to come with there own carry cases so that is okay too.

Stuff to take with you:
- map (for the journey)
- flight board (why strap something to your leg if you don't have to?)
- plog and scraps of paper
- photocopies of the flying clubs Pooleys guide or better still print outs of the offiicial charts
- one pen for flight board
- one pen for use on map/ whizz wheel
- whizz wheel
- plotter (protractor and ruler combined)
- license and paper log book
- aircraft checklist
- can of red bull and king size twix (essential)
- some old rags to wipe stuff and a length of emergency loo roll (good ideas from above ;))

Stuff you might need or could rent/ borrow:
- high-viz
- sick bag
- sunglasses
- GPS
- life jackets/ raft
- PLB

Stuff to leave at home:
- torch (unless you are flying at night and are prone to dropping things :))
- stopwatch (wear a watch)
- calculator (you already have a whizz wheel and most likely a mobile phone)
- fuel tester/ dip sticks (normally will be kept in the aircraft anyway)

Slight thread offshoot

Plog for a 4h30' flight Dijon - Rome

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...canEagle/6.jpg

Checking all the instruments are illuminated is sodding difficult pre-flight if you will be flying through dusk.

I recently was very thankful of my torch after discovering that the compass and ASI illumination didn't work whilst in flight.

Also I fly, occasionally at night, a vintage aeroplane with no useful instrument lighting, and a single dome light behind my head. If that bulb goes, without a torch, I could well be in some discomfort.

And no light aeroplane I've yet to fly has a light that effectively illuminates anything strapped to my right knee.

I take a torch! It's hardly an expensive luxury. A couple of cheap cylumes bought of eBay are no bad thing as well. I have three nice little clip on LED ones which, including batteries, cost me £4.80 the lot from an eBay shop, and double for reading in bed without waking my wife up.

G

:confused:

Never seen a place where you could rent sick bags. Furthermore, do you really want to use some elses sick bag?:E

(Me, I bought a packet of zip-lock freezer bags from the supermarket. They inspire a little more confidence than the traditional airliner-style waxed paper ones. Disadvantage is that they're see-through...)

The great thing about Prune is that one leans how other students are taught...Flight bags, what are they?!

Personally I put everything I need (except my chart) into my grow-bag. Chart is stuffed down the side of my seat and I currently use a piece of laminated paper strapped to my knee and a chinagraph pencil to note down ATIS and ATC instructions. Headset case I leave in the clubhouse...

...but there is very little spare room in a Grob...