Random items you take with you on each flight...

[Fury220]

As I was stepping to fly the other day, I thought about the random stuff we pilots take with us to the jet each day. I know we all have our checklists and pubs that always accompany us, so lets leave that out of the discussion. More specifically, what random/unorthodox things to you generally take with, and why?

I'll go first...here's my short list:

1-Wallet (of course), but with my Gov't Travel Card (in case of divert/emergency)
2-Flight cap (the day you don't have it is the day you divert...many don't fly with one)
3-Sunglasses...even if it's cloudy out. Nothing's more miserable than needing them and not having 'em.
4-Afrin...a great "get me down...it hurts" aid
5-A single piddle pack tucked into my g-suit (reference #3 for why)
6-Airsickness bag (again, #3)
7-One pack of gum. I love to chew while I fly.
8-My USB flash drive (just because it's always in my pocket)
9-My cell phone (ref. #'s 1, 2, and 3)
10-On totally bad wx days, my GPS (also when I'm flying XC sorties)
11-Leatherman tool (the sheath is laced into my boot laces)


...and that's about it. I guess some of the stuff might be similar to what everyone carries with them going out the door...but what do you carry with that's unique to your particular style of flying and/or needs in the air?


And yeah, if anyone's wondering...I'm bored. Too much ice up there to fly this morning.

 

[Saabslime]

1. USA Today
2. Neck Pillow for the transcons
3. Penthouse (for the 4 days away from the wife........I'm weak)
4. Preperation H...........because of the transcons
5. Redbull...............for the redeyes. And because it supposedly gives you wings. They don't give us airlines pukes parachutes ya know.
6. Anti- hershey squirt pills...........because you never know

 

[bafanguy]

Can't get a Leatherman through security anymore. Bottle of hotsauce is good to correct for the inadequacies of airport/airplane food. Although a buddy of mine got pulled aside by TSA and asked why he had a bottle of "whiskey" in his flightkit and was made to open it up his bag for them. You see, the hotsauce bottle is shaped somewhat like a whiskey bottle and I guess the xray machine magnifies a bit...


Your tax dollars at work, folks.

 

[Cardinal]

1. A boxful of Bausch & Lomb "Sight Savers" to clean the EFIS screens after Captain Retard attacked them with wet wipes.
2. Bag of AOPA "Future Pilot" wings for the little tykes.
3. Spare flashlight (mini-mag) for escaping a smoke-filled hotel.
4. Ramper style earband for those interminable deadheads.
5. MP3 player for when we've run out of stuff to chat about.

 

[Art Vandalay]

1. MP3 Player usually loaded with music that will keep me awake. Occasionally I will load a "book on CD" on it.

2. Large pack of extra AAA battereies from Costco for said MP3 Player.

3. Extra rechargable AA batteries for Lightspeed 30-3G with MP3/cell phone interface. Best invention I've seen in awhile

4. 10 pound Gleim ATP written book.

5. Garmin 295 Hand-Held GPS.

6. Empty Aeroshell QT for use if I drink too much coffee and have a 2-hour leg.

 

[shamrock]

6. Anti- hershey squirt pills...........because you never know

Don't leave home (or the gate) without 'em!

Or you'll have a good story for the "diahrrea in a Freighter" thread.

 

[starchkr]

1. Large aquafina bottle (empty) for those long flights after too much liquid intake before departure...we have no bathrooms onboard
2. Cooler stocked with food...because living off the snack machines is not only expensive, but i am already fat enough
3. Lots of energy drinks (in cooler as well) to help keep me awake on flight hour number 8+ at 4 in the morning
4. Co-pilot to wake me up just before touchdown...just f'in with ya
5. Leatherman...well everyone needs one of these
6. A list of all the radio disney stations from one point on my route to the next...hey, we all have some sort of weakness for Kelly...or even the awesome old school music they play sometimes...I tell you what, Who let the dogs out or some good salt n' peppa at 3 in the morning does wonders to the mood as you and your co-pilot joke around and dance in the cockpit the whole time.
7. Any and all magazines (including ones that have no relevance to anything you ever wished to do in life) to read to keep yourself awake...again at 3 in the morning listening to radio disney.
8. a dream...a dream to someday fly during the daylight hours that is, this will keep you going every time.

 

[Fury220]

6. A list of all the radio disney stations from one point on my route to the next...hey, we all have some sort of weakness for Kelly...or even the awesome old school music they play sometimes...I tell you what, Who let the dogs out or some good salt n' peppa at 3 in the morning does wonders to the mood as you and your co-pilot joke around and dance in the cockpit the whole time.

This is one of the more interesting things I've heard in this thread. Who woulda thunk it, right? Pilots listening to Disney Radio?


But really.....who the f*ck let the dogs out?

 

[mar]

Weight conscious: I hate draggin' my bags.

Still paring down the flightbag....

So far,

--my little red log book
--headsets
--digital camera
--lead pencils
--lead pencil sharpener
--pen refills
--plotter (believe it or not...)
--calculator
--highlighter
--black marker
--various company forms/envelopes
--little maglight
--coffee ('cause some planes don't have any)

I think that about covers it.

 

[Simon Says]

Two to three cans of Skoal longcut wintergreen. Depending on how many days I will be gone.

 

[A Squared]

3/8 inch ratchet
spark plug socket
assortment of 3/8" wobble extensions
oxygen sensor socket (for removing spark plug leads)
spark plugs
9/16" combination wrench.
handheld GPS
headlamp
spare batteries
safety harness
insulated overalls

 

[avbug]

Deck of cards, minus the jokers. Each trip always has more than enough.

 

[minitour]

Deck of cards, minus the jokers. Each trip always has more than enough.

*rimshot*

He'll be here all week folks....try the roast beef!

 

[bafanguy]

3/8 inch ratchet
spark plug socket
assortment of 3/8" wobble extensions
oxygen sensor socket (for removing spark plug leads)
spark plugs
9/16" combination wrench.
handheld GPS
headlamp
spare batteries
safety harness
insulated overalls

AXA,

Thought you were a pilot, not a PFE ( lol ) !! I used to fly with a captain many years ago who carried a bunch of tools in his flightkit. He couldn't use them on the airplane, but he'd go into hotel rooms and fix stuff...lamps, faucets, electrical outlets, loose furniture legs...

Ah, the pleasantly eccentric...they're so much more interesting than the rest of us.

 

[Lead Sled]

Hmmmmm....

Let's see, what's in this thing?

I've got my laptop, a printer, their chargers, a small case filled with miscellaneous cables, some spare ink cartridges, some paper, a flight planning reference materials, a pair of spare eyeglasses, and a $5 AA headset to use when I have to airline somewhere or to plug into the laptop when I'm really bored.

Since I fly the same airplane pretty much exclusively, I keep a pair of sunglasses, an few Amodium ADs (To the man who invented those: Bless you!) and a few small hand tools in or near the cockpit.

'Sled

 

[HAZ-MAT]

Leatherman
Purell hand sanitizer
Deck of cards
Rain Poncho (who knows why)
Ear plugs
Ear plugs
er.. more Ear plugs
man these Ear plugs are eveywhere

 

[ironwedge]

1.) Hot sauce of the week (crew meal helper).

2.) digital camera (I'll get a clear photo of all the UFO's some day).

3.) MP3 player (no disney radio) over the ocean.

4.) mini-spirograph (don't ask).

uh, I need to go actually look in my flight bag. Just occured to me I haven't seen the bottom of that thing in years.

 

[avbug]

I suppose everybody has heard it...

Night, weather, turbulence, an emergency in flight. When you are utterly on your own, with not a soul to cry out to, when all that is holy is coming undone, and you're alone and being beaten up at altitude, all else has failed and there is nowhere to turn, that's when you bring out the deck of cards. When you've followed all your proceedures, flipped all the switches there are to flip turned all the knobs and dials there are to turn, pushed and pulled levers and pumped and bypassed, that's when you bring out the deck of cards.

Open the deck, shuffle twice (because once is really just a cut), and lay out seven piles for a game of patience (solitaire). Begin to play, and sooner or later, from out of nowhere, someone will lean over your shoulder and say, "that black six goes on that red seven."

Ask that person for help.

 

[Dodge]

If you fly for Pinnacle, it is mandatory that you have a backpack over your shoulder filled with items of your choice while you walk through the terminal.

 

[A Squared]

AXA, Thought you were a pilot, not a PFE ( lol ) .

Sometimes the distinction gets a little blurred. <g> The engineers usully carry a few basic tools, but in my experience, they usually don't have the tools to pull a spark plug. With the right tools, many can be plucked from thir nest in about 5 minutes, some without even opening the cowling. Without the right tools, it can take hours. Sometimes being able to pull a plug and see whether it's fouled or peened means the difference between continuing the flight, or sropping the rest of the load and returning to base on 3 engines.

4.) mini-spirograph (don't ask).

too bad, i'm asking anyway ... must be an interesting explanation behind that one <g> Wonder how many people actually remember what a spirograph is?

 

[avbug]

I do. And they still make them. I bought one for my kids last year for Christmas.


I think it lasted twenty minutes.

 

[Flechas]

Headsets (DCs,6 years old, but better than the ones company provide)
flashlight
food
earplugs
magazines
water
gloves
Immodium (lost, you never know)
Gum

 

[AlabamaMan!!]

4-Afrin...a great "get me down...it hurts" aid
.

Be careful with the Afrin, I just found out today that it is not approved by the FAA. But apparently Flonase is, off to Walgreens.

None of you guys ever stash a few jimmy hats in the bottom of the bag so the girlfriend/wife doesnt find em? The time you dont bring a few is the time the "beav" falls in your lap unexpectedly.

 

[Capthuff]

MiniMag
Misc pens from FBOs
Ear plugs
Leatherman
Nasa forms (you never know)
Calculator
Paper
Business Cards
Resume
Gum
Amodium
Advil
Tums
Coupons for Avfuel
A book - currently J. Buffett's " A Salty Piece of Land"
Alarm clock
Cell phone charger
Digital and a throw away camera
Charger for Camera battery
Hotel points cards
The Cellular Pilot's phone book

This list is too long

 

[Fury220]

Be careful with the Afrin, I just found out today that it is not approved by the FAA. But apparently Flonase is, off to Walgreens.

The USAF has done plenty of studies on Afrin, and using it is an automatic DNIF. It's approved for use as a "get me down" aid...as in, one use, then you're grounded for a couple days. Then you see the flight doc and he determines if you're good to fly.


It's worth it to carry it, though, and it's saved my ass once or twice when it hurt too much to descend. Be advised that prolonged use of Afrin actually leads to an addiction to it. Your sinuses will shut up without a spray every couple hours. More than a couple days use of afrin isn't advisable even if you DON'T fly.

 

[urflyingme?!]

Lucky paper clip!
(got it from lead singer of linkin park)
PS(I know thats lame, but my set-list colection just wont fit in my bag!)

 

[seawings]

Chargers...IPaq, Cell phone, and Sonic toothbrush (gums going bad)

Extras...throw away razors, soap/shampoo (a lot of foreign countries we go to don't have them...tells you something about where we go!!).

Snacks...plastic wrapped items (again you know...where we go thing).

Zip Lock Bags...?not sure why I carry those, but I do?

Bag full of power and telephone connectors...(yah yah...you know...where we go thing).

Printer...an old BJ one (very small...works great), you would be surprised how many time that has come in handy. Once in Africa we couldn't get the flight plan faxed (it was broken) but were able to log on and down load…go figure, Africa internet??? What’s the world coming to?

CD's...we take a load off the airplane and watch them (on our laptops…see printer above) from 2 to 6 in the morning when your sleep cycle is off...way off!!

The bag is now reaching critical mass…oh yes!! Cloths, don’t forget the cloths…everything needs to match the black shoes (no room for other shoes), no room remaining now…the expandable zipper has been opened to relieve the growing pressure!!

Careful now…turn out the bathroom light and quietly (don’t want to wake the lady of the house) leave the house for another “O dark thirty” departure for today’s destination…somewhere over the horizon...and use the "stuff" above.

Have a good trip.

 

[bafanguy]

The folks who are listing their Leatherman, how are you getting that through security ? You must operate where you don't have to suffer that indignity ?

 

[NuGuy]

My items:


50 weight motor oil

Ball bearings (cause everything is going ball bearings these days)

Antifreeze, preferably Prestone....no, make that Quaker State...

Nu

 

[Clutch_Cargo]

Nu,

Did you forget your gauze pads?

cc