Soft Leather Pilot Bag

Every pilot needs a good bag to carry their gear. There are headsets, navigation aids, kneeboard, VFR maps, timers, books, more books, torch, personal GPS, pens, logbook, clipboard, spare undies and most important your aviator sunglasses.

There are probably many elements that will go into the selection of the appropriate bag. Some that I've heard and others that I'm still years away from understanding. For me being a student, it is about practicality and keeping everything together. There could be the cool factor as well, "Yep this giant black rigid bag on wheels means I'm very important, there are lots of very important things in there that pilots need" (like your credit card to pay for the lesson when your done)...

So my choice, a black soft leather bag from PilotMall.com.  Why, on advice, a soft bag can be jammed into smallist spaces, can weather a good few bumps, and has a safe spot for everything you need including your credit card.  The other reasons, I didn't want one of the big black boxes (aka bags) and it actually looks good as well.

In general I'm really happy with the bag.  Despite the $80USD to ship it to Australia, it is going to last a good while.  There are a few drawbacks with this bag however.  Lets talk about those.

First, the inside of the bag has a soft thin lining.  The velcro in the main part of the bag is attached to that lining.  When you attempt to remove or place any pressure on the velcro, the lining rips.  Its pretty poor quality from that regard.  The disappointing thing is that takes away in many respects from all the good qualities of the bag, which in every other way is well put together.  The other minor niggles, the end pockets will not fit your headset and the your log book doesn't fit in the pocket shown in the picture...

So, overall I'm happy.  With all my student training books packed in, my Lightspeed Zulu's, log book (in the size pocket), Go-Pro, GPS and a other bits and pieces, it fits well.  Watch this space to see what PilotMall is going to do about the lining, which in my case was already torn when it arrived.

The alternative which I've heard is the bag to have, the BrightLine Pilot Flight Bag.  Too small for my current needs, but maybe post PPL, it could be an option...