Most used so far, a5 folding out knee board with said spring clip pencil holder - even without paper charts you have to write down atis and clearances!
Bose A20 are a revelation. Why do they have an on switch For the noise cancelling rather than turn on based on aircraft power though?
Only things I carry on are iPad and knee board.
Sunglasses are a subject of contention - some never wear them, some wear them all the time. For those in the latter group, I can thorougly recommend these. They have a rugged frame and thin springy cable temples, which makes a lot of difference.
Kneeboards - yes, definitely A4-sized. Having shattered a couple of plastic ones, I finally found one made of aluminium.
Pilot cases - I bought a cheap one and converted it for a slightly different purpose:
I may also put some velcro strips around the window to reattach the pocket if I want to smuggle Lucy aboard on an airline that charges more for a cat's ticket in the cabin than for a human one.
By far the best piece of kit I bought is a CEP conversion for my headset. This conversion adds a pair of in-ear speakers to a headset or helmet. When the earplugs are not used, the headset will continue to function normally. Before the conversion I couldn't understand what was being said even with the radio turned up to maximum. Now I can hear everything clearly with the radio turned way down, even during take off. For once in aviation, the conversion isn't ridicoulusly expensive either.
!http://cep-usa.com/images/Pictures/david%20clark/DC1.jpg!
Another thing that works is the David Clark headset support assembly. This keeps my headset on under negative G. It's cheap and works just as advertised.
Something that didn't quite work is a watch I bought a year or two ago. It runs ok, but it needs a new battery every six months. That gets annoying rather quickly. I've now replaced it with a solar powered Citizen that never needs a new battery.
3 out of 4 most valuable pieces of kit for me are powered devices.
The fourth is a travel john. I know a bottle can work, but a travel john makes less of a mess.
If you're planning to do an IR or something, just borrow the ER5 from someone, 99% of the pilots have one but never use it while flying.
About the kneeboard. I tend to use it in aircraft with a yoke, but with a stick, it's just not that comfortable.
Oh and btw, every pilot will give you another list. For some it's just an iPad and other want a pulse/oxygen saturation meter for flying above FL070. Others want an ethanol tester when flying Mogas and others will never depart without the picture of their wife attached to the panel. It's just a matter of preference and stuff you've dealt with in the past.
BEST: Those headband type led lights - several stages of white light and one of red. Godsend for night flying that leaves both hands free and it always points where you are looking
ANOTHER WORST: The plastic gumshield-like fitting that goes onto the end of a Maglite to enable you to hold it on your mouth . . . awful, dribbling, jaw-ache not to mention the risk of getting impaled on it in a heavy landing.
Peter and I are destined never to agree on the infamous whizz-wheel, I use and like mine as a good robust simple device, which I regularly use in my flight planning. The Pooleys CRP-1W is for me pretty much the definitive little aeroplane model.
Kneeboards I have loads, acquired over the years for one reason or another, but by and large my all time favourite is a Pooleys tri-fold which is absolutely the bees-knees in the majority of aeroplanes I ever fly.
A good cheap (fiver off the local market or conference gizzit) flight bag I find damned useful. I have a proper pilot case as well, it goes with a suit for taking lots of documents to meetings, but I certainly don't use it for flying.
A little A5 clear-sleeve-folder from my local stationery store is also an essential for me, as I use it to hold the various charts, PLOGS, etc that seem to be the mainstay of my flying life.
A small plastic VOR plotter I find well worth the money for running checks on "stuff" in the air.
I'm not a big sunglasses fan, but a cheap baseball cap is a standard flight bag fixture.
And a cheap Casio fx83 is always useful, although increasingly I just tend to use the calculator on my phone.
G
My kit
Dave Clark headsets had them for 20 years and they still work fine)
Cheap Kneeboard
Yoke clip for hanging the check-list (check-list transposed out of POH into excel then print + laminate)
Cheap pen and torch
Fuel strainer
A £5 12X8 inch visor with a sucker cup to stick on the windsheild on final if needed.
A "Little John" piss bottle
Kilmarnock bonnet for shielding the sun and headset comfort.
A 6 foot length of bailer twine with 5 shaped foam pieces strung along it for blocking cowling openings if parking away overnight.
And last but not least and I know I am gonna get shit for this : 1 Zaon XRX PCAS unit (pricey but extremely useful)
I'm undecided about whether to replace my A5 kneeboard, and if so whether to get an A4 kneeboard or a plain clipboard.
The A4 board laid on the knees is obviously easier to write on and generally move around compared to the A5 strap-on (ooh-err), but I like the opening aspect of my kneeboard with dividers for plates, checklists etc...
I use a WindProtractor as calculator, never fly without my Bose and Icom
