Essential pilot gear
 

What items do you take when flying, from the obvious stuff like headsets, right down to the little handy things that you just couldn't do without?

Camera, dont even think about going flying with out one because you will miss so many good photos

mobile phone and have a list of likely tower/area numbers with you as well.

If you have a radio failure its a god send.

Brain x 1.
Eyes x 2.

Everthing else is just ego and personal preferance.

If you can afford one, even a bascic handheld gps is very handy. if nothing else you can cross check with yr 'on paper' nav log.
Personally I always also carry a little torch, even if its not dark u may drop something down amongst the pedals etc. A Spare pen is a good idea too.

A Bear. Never criticises one's nav/radio/landings, knows when to keep quiet, offers comfort when required - the perfect co-pilot. ;)

A positive attitude! All those emotional problems restrict flying ability.

Never go anywhere without a camera these days, and always wear my symbolic wings.

A flying machine never hurts either!

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1- kneeboard, flightplan etc, list of diversions
2- 2 torches, 1 red 1 white+ spare batterys
3- a sealable water bottle
4- couple of spare pens, calculator


like the tip about the camera though :ok: , will have to look into that

Headset,Map, Pens, Pooleys, GPS, Oil, and Teddy

Looks like im gonna have to get myself a teddy!!!

Teddy?? eh? why a teddy? some company to talk to?:confused: :p

Exactly.
...and further to my previous post, the Bears like to fly and couldn't afford it otherwise on the pocket money I give them.

Personally I find the poppers on a Teddy too tiresome. A basque is much easier.

Apart from the obvious things like a silk scarf, leather flying jacket, pipe you could include on your list,

Sunglasses
Ear plugs
Icom handheld radio for those IMC radio failures
Local knowledge to impress the pax (thats where the battle of blah happened in 1062)......
Sick bags (for when you impress the pax with your flying skill..)

Na, you can just make all that cr@p up!:E

Quote:......"A basque is much easier."
The problem is finding one around here. They're so, well, separatist....

A muesli bar or two, or something similar, plus water. It's not unknown for there to be no food or drink of any kind available at an airfield when you land...no matter what they say in Pooleys. And if you have any problems, have to divert, get lost, or have to do a precautionary landing, food may be a real necessity.

Top of the list when carrying pax, sick bags, courtesy of brittany ferries:ok:

Never needed one yet, but the thought of an ill pax in such a confined space just doesn't bear thinking about.:yuk:

In the vein of truely essential, don't forget to always have a litre or so of oil in the hold.

The sick bags are a must.

And not just one either and prefferably with a freezer bag inside as a lining. The art of folding a chart into something which will hold puke while flying an approach is unfortunaly sadly lacking from all private and commercial training.

The reason for more than one is they tend to sit for ages folded up and when 2 litres of burger and chips with a pint pint of coke hits the bottom, it tends to leak. On no account let pax try and barf out the window even if its a Cessna where the window folds right up to the wing. All it does is atomise and spray paint the whole of the cockpit/ back of the plane including all surfaces infront of the pax.

And they are no use whats so ever in your flight bag. After one memorable day I started carrying one in the pocket in the back of my knee board. You really don't want to be hunting for one when the need arises. You have less time to deal with a sick pax than you do with an engine failure.

PS your not that bloke who was on the TV fly on the wall prog of a flying school are you. I seem to remember he had a teddy with him as well and always gave it a full pax brief before departure. And when on X-countrys chatted away to it as if it was the instructor.