Some Useful Things to Take with You?

[eagle5]

What are some of the things you take with you when you fly (other than the standard headset, chart, and GPS)?

 

Here's mine for the R22;

 

- spare glasses

 

- flashlight (small enough to hold in my mouth because preflight and start up are easier with both hands)

 

- pen light attached to kneeboard (I like to fly at night)

 

- electrical tape (to put over broken post light, so it doesn't stare at me all through the flight messing with my night vision)

 

- rubber band (to place over nose vent lever that keeps falling closed,...I like fresh air when I fly)

 

- little red stickers (to inop gages)

 

- extra cotter pins (for the doors)

 

- vomit bag (for weary passengers)

 

- 2 AA batteries (kept in an old dental floss container in the seat pocket because my Zulu, GPS, and flashlight all use AAs)

 

- flare/life vest (since I fly over water a lot)

 

- small towel (to wipe the windshield as it fogs up during warm up)

 

- small paint roller refill (the best thing I could find to clean the water out of my fuel tester,...this was a recent addition after, well,...)

 

So, what's your list?

[rodrop]

Good list. I will say your list is nice and long... I also bring the spare glasses. Spare handheld radio, I also bring my cell phone fully charged.

[SBuzzkill]

LoL that would be a long list...

[Hotdogs]

Kneeboard, smartpack, checklists, ifr/vfr pubs, pen.

 

Cheetos. Always gotta have something to munch on.

[280fxColorado]

Always, appropriate footwear- for me, hiking boots sturdy enough to kick through a door/windscreen and hike several miles in snow, mud, whatever.

Enough clothing to survive overnight, several layers, hat, gloves, survival blanket.

SPOT GPS

Knife

Lighter

Flashlight

Basic toolkit

Food/water for a day or more

 

[JCM5]

Sugar free chewing gum.

[Wally]

Always, appropriate footwear- for me, hiking boots sturdy enough to kick through a door/windscreen and hike several miles in snow, mud, whatever.

Enough clothing to survive overnight, several layers, hat, gloves, survival blanket.

SPOT GPS

Knife

Lighter

Flashlight

Basic toolkit

Food/water for a day or more

 

Pretty much the above, except food, and the toolkit is a Leatherman. Boots, boots, boots! And start dressed for the weather, dummies...

Anybody know a good source of pen flares/refills, or comparable?

 

P.S. Spare cell phone battery.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Wally

[Lindsey]

Always, appropriate footwear- for me, hiking boots sturdy enough to kick through a door/windscreen and hike several miles in snow, mud, whatever.

Enough clothing to survive overnight, several layers, hat, gloves, survival blanket.

SPOT GPS

Knife

Lighter

Flashlight

Basic toolkit

Food/water for a day or more

 

How do you like the SPOT GPS? I've been looking at getting one for when I'm flying, particularly for those middle-of-nowhere XCs. Do you keep it under the seat? I suppose my concern would be if you were to crash and the seat flattened like its supposed to...well there goes your GPS too, right when you'll really be needing it.

[280fxColorado]

The SPOT is good enough for most situations and certainly better than nothing. Although there are bigger, stronger, more accurate EPIRB/PLBs available, the SPOT gives you the most bang for the buck. When I am solo, I keep it clipped to a belt loop. If I have a copilot or pax, they have it and are briefed on operating the SOS function. I keep it running in the Track mode which sends out a position every 8 minutes or so which my ground crew monitors. With lithium batteries I get nearly 200 hours of continuous use. Even if I am unable to activate the SOS mode, I would hope a SAR crew could follow the route of travel and find me at the pile of bread crumbs. The pricing is very reasonable and even if my boss didnt pay for it, I wouldn't fly in remote areas without one.

Edited February 10, 2013 by 280fxColorado

[Lindsey]

The SPOT is good enough for most situations. Although there are bigger, stronger, more accurate EPIRB/PLBs available, the SPOT certainly gives you the most bang for the buck. When I am solo, I keep it clipped to a belt loop. If I have a copilot or pax, they have it and are briefed on operating the SOS function. I keep it running in the Track mode which sends out a position every 8 minutes or so which my ground crew monitors. With lithium batteries I get nearly 200 hours of continuous use. Even if I am unable to activate the SOS mode, I would hope a SAR crew could follow the route of travel and find me at the pile of bread crumbs. The pricing is very reasonable and even if my boss didnt pay for it, I wouldn't fly in remote areas without one.

 

Excellent, thank you. The track function sounds perfect. Too bad you have to pay a subscription fee on top of the cost of the GPS itself, but I suppose when sh*t hits the fan you will be wishing you paid up.

[heli3544]

Copenhagen!

[eagle5]

Spare handheld radio,

 

There's a good idea! How far away will it work? Can you hear it while flying, and/or does it come with an ear piece you can put under your headset?

[Hotdogs]

Copenhagen!

 

There's a good idea! How much will you bring? What brand? Cope or Skoal? long cut or fine cut? should you go with pouches so it's easier to manage in the cockpit?

[Sonic04GT]

Interesting list. If I'm doing anything outside of the local area I bring my flight bag with:

 

Kneeboard with pen, dry erase marker, and spare AA's for my headset

Head lamp

Handheld radio with headset adapter

Phone charger

Clip-on timer

CX-2

GoPro with extra batteries

And of course the usual sectional/TAC/AFD

[gary-mike]

There's a good idea! How much will you bring? What brand? Cope or Skoal? long cut or fine cut? should you go with pouches so it's easier to manage in the cockpit?

Copenhagen is the brand, and in true form only comes in snuff (fine cut). Cures coughs, colds runny nose, fits, freckles, and wort's... and makes you feel so good. RIP Chris

[SBuzzkill]

There's a good idea! How much will you bring? What brand? Cope or Skoal? long cut or fine cut? should you go with pouches so it's easier to manage in the cockpit?

 

Pouches for us. I usually go with the Skoal Snus pouch for the 5+ hour days.

[Gomer Pylot]

I carry

water

antacids,

analgesic tablets,

caffeine tablets,

Altoids (the caffeine tabs & Altoids work well for alertness. Oil of peppermint has been shown to increase alertness, and it works well for me).

multiple light sources,

a charger for phones & lots of other things which is powered by AA batteries

food (granola bar, jerky, etc)

gloves, both leather and exam. The exam gloves are good for keeping oil, grease, etc off my hands and are disposable, and the med crew has lots of them. Or you can buy a box lots of places.

Extra tips for my CEPs

Folding knife

Gerber Multi-tool

Probably other stuff in my bag, I've added stuff over the years, and periodically I clean it out, removing stuff I haven't used for a year or more.

 

 

[Whistlerpilot]

I carry most of the stuff as above minus the Snus, kneeboard, rubber bands, and red dots.

 

Most of my flying is remote so I've made my own survival kit. One small bag is at my feet, the rest is in a dry bag.

 

I carry a Satellite phone, a good fire lighting kit including tinder, candles, fire starter, etc... and a pot. Also carry a sil tarp to make a shelter, and a folding saw. Extra food and water, extra clothing layers including goretex pants and jacket. Wool toque (beanie), warm gloves not just flight gloves and down jacket. In the winter I add a sleeping bag, jet boil stove, insulated bib pants and gaitors.

 

Sounds nerdy but I always carry a whiz wheel flight computer (the mini one and got rid of the wind chart) and a calculator within reach.

 

I've used all of this stuff at some point, including the Spot 911 function. The folding saw, fire kit, tarp and pot is gold.

 

If the company supplied helicopter has satellite tracking I don't always enable tracking on the Spot but if not I always leave a cookie crumb trail.

 

This sounds like a lot but it's pretty compact and everything was bought to be as light as possible. With all this gear I still come in under 200 lbs and I'm 170 gym weight. Without the extra food and clothing it's only 15 lbs.

[JDHelicopterPilot]

Since all our aircraft are operated under Part 135 there are some things we have to have. However, we carry a survival kit hich includes your basic stuff to purify water and start a fire. The first aid kit is not needed since we are a mobile ICU/ER. Two ELTs are also on board.

 

Being on a flight plan, either IFR or VFR is also required. While it is not something I bring on board, I almost always have flight following with ATC. Even on the short flights of 30 mins.

[Gomer Pylot]

We have a survival kit, dictated by CAMTS, but it's really just ballast. Where I fly, the basic survival kit is a credit card and a twenty dollar bill. I carry water and snacks just in case I get a little hungry or thirsty on the job. If we were to go down, we could walk to safety in minutes if we really thought it necessary, but I plan to stay with the ship, because the sat tracking system will tell the company exactly where we are if we can't make contact by radio or one of the many cellphones on board. Surviving for days in the wilderness isn't really a concern for us. YMMV.

[ridethisbike]

Even if I am unable to activate the SOS mode, I would hope a SAR crew could follow the route of travel and find me at the pile of bread crumbs.

 

The spot trackers my school uses sends a blip every 5 minutes. Our "dispatcher" is supposed to monitor the XC flights. Assuming the SOS doesn't get triggered, a stack of blips in one spot that isn't an airport is the cue that something is wrong. No need to follow bread crumbs when the stack of blips are in one spot.

[SBuzzkill]

My "go-bag" is set up for a night out in the cold. I have a change of socks, a down jacket and pants, gloves, and a stocking cap. We also have survival kits in the aircraft which have food and water and some other basic stuff.

 

I carry a small pouch on my vest which includes a couple signaling devices, some Excedrin pills, a pocket knife, a compass, an NPA and some lube, some medical tape, and a fire starter. I also have a tourniquet on my vest as well as a CSEL radio and a seatbelt cutter.

 

We tend to fly bundled up already so what I bring just augments the cold weather gear I have on. Even though we have a dedicated DART team, fly multi-ship, and have plans in place for a downed aircraft... If we PL somewhere up here in the north country of New York it could be a long time before anyone comes to pick us up. Even a few hours is a long time to be outside in freezing temperatures and snow.

[Little Bird]

Does anyone have recommendations of knives? Been looking at Gerber's LMF II and wonder if anyone has it? Cheers

[aeroscout]

Bring a winning powerball ticket. That will get you found before you can even get lost.

[Gomer Pylot]

Knives are pretty much commodities. I own a lot of them, and they all work. I don't recommend ceramic models, because they're too brittle for hard use, but pretty much any stainless steel model will work well enough as a survival knife.