Probably 90% of us got gung-ho early in our training and bought a flight bag of some sort or another. Something to carry a headset, handheld radio, iPad, VFR and IFR charts, A/FD and TPP, E6B in both whiz-wheel and electronic form, a handful of plotters, foggles, flashlight, sunglasses, extra batteries, notepad, pulse oximeter, Stratus, vomit bags, full change of clothes and shaving kit, logbook, first aid kit, snowshoes, the kitchen sink, and some ballast just to make sure you can't try to carry any passengers without going over gross. And then we all end up leaving that behind and just carrying an iPad and headset to the plane when we actually fly. And then we run into times when we wish we had something else that we had left back at the hangar, be it a cell phone charger or a change of underwear for an unplanned overnight diversion or a paper chart when the iPad stops working.
Who here has a flight bag that they actually use and like that will carry the things you use on 100% of flights and store the things you might 100% need on 1% of flights, without being disorganized or the wrong size? I made a list of my stuff in 4 categories: in use during flight, handy during flight to use regularly, handy during flight for emergencies, and only used on the ground when spending the night somewhere unplanned or getting ramp checked. Then I ran out of steam before shopping for a bag.
