Originally published: December 2006

What’s In Your Flight Bag

This is a regular game pilots play and I used to pretty much ignore. What I carried in my flight bag when I was learning to fly and when I was fight instructing varied from the mundane to the overkill and it wasn’t interesting to me, let alone anybody else. These days a lot of what’s in my flight bag is mandated by the company, and I thought you might be mildly interested in it’s contents.

All the binders are Jepp size binders, although they aren’t (with one exception) actual Jepp binders.

Must be There

General Operations Manual (GOM) a 2-inch binder which contains all the general information I need to know about the operation of our airline. I also stick an 11 page document that contains information on operations frequencies, expected gate assignments etc. for all the airports we operate to.
Company Flight Manual (CFM) a 2-inch binder which contains all the specific information for the aircraft including abnormal chcklists etc.
Jepps – 3 2-inch binders that contains the companies Jet Fleet Manuals. The first manual contains various log pages and NOTAMS and then all the high level and low level charts for the US, Canada and Mexico. The second binder contains airport up through the letter ‘L’ and the third binder contains all the rest of the airports.
Headset – I use a Telex 850.
Flashlight.
Spare Glasses.
Passport.
Pen.

Should be There

We actually have 2 CFMs, one for the CRJ200 and one for the CRJ 700/900. Since we can actually only fly one plane at a time we only really need one of the CFMs in the flight deck, but since we could be assigned to fly either type at any time the other CFM can’t be left at home. So the CFM I’m not using goes in my roll-around bag. This is why, from time to time, you’ll see me crouched over my bag digging through my underwear looking for a manual.

Other Stuff

A 1-inch Jepp binder – my ready book. I put the airports we’re going to visit on a trip in here for ready reference, and when we’re flying the entire binder clips onto the right hand clipboard for easy reference. This was suggested in ground school, I don’t know how many other geeks do it, I’ll tell you this, if any captains ever did it they’ve grown out of it :-). Also in this book is the ARINC frequency chart because we need to “monitor” the local ARINC frequency when in flight, and the map of the VORs used for weather reports (SIGMET etc.).
Weight and Balance Sheets – for the 200, 700 and 900. In theory each plane has plenty of these sheets on board, but in practice not always and not being able to depart because you don’t have the right paperwork sucks. So I carry some spares.
Passenger Briefing Cards – yep, we had to delay pushing off the gate once because the lane was missing passenger briefing cards. Don’t ask me what people do with them. So when we got a new stock I took a couple to carry with me, hasn’t happened since, but when it does, I’ll be ready.
TOLD Cards – I carry a couple of spare pads of TOLD (Takeoff and Landing Data) cards with me. This is another thing normally stocked in the plane that sometimes runs out.
Sunglasses.
Mini Rand-McNally US road atlas – very handy when looking out the window and wondering “what’s that city?”
Chewing Gum.
Cough Drops
Advil
Antiseptic wipes.
Hand sanitizer.
Ear Protectors.
Spare Pens.

Flight Deck Organization

My cockpit organization is pretty simple. The 1-inch Jepp binder comes out and gets clipped to the sidewall. The headset comes out and gets plugged in and that’s it. If anything else comes out of the bag it gets used and gets put back in the bag as soon as possible (sometimes when you need to consult the CFM you consult it and sling it back behind you, but as soon as the excitement dies down it goes back in the bag. This makes it harder to forget something when you’re changing planes 3 times a day.

There seems to be 2 other schools of thought on organization, but they all work and they all suit the individuals involved.

The Nesters

These people build a nest with all their stuff before they do anything else. Anything they might need comes out of the bag and gets placed in it’s appropriate location. And then end of the flight it all gets picked up and put back in the bag.

The Pilers

These people just pull stuff as needed from their flight bag and when it’s used pt it down somewhere. At the end of the flight they have a pile of stuff out of the bag and they just put it all back in, ready for the incremental unloading on the next flight.