What's ACTUALLY in my flight bag?! // airline pilot gear

Alright, let's do this. I thought it would be fun to show you what's inside my pilot bag. Pilots are only required to carry two things, an iPad, which has all of our company manuals, approach plates, and a flashlight, which I have quick access to whenever I'm in the cockpit and I need a light. So, those are the two things we're required to carry. What else is in here? That's what I'm going to show you right now. Starting with the bag itself, it's made by First Tactical, which is kind of a police supply company, and it certainly has a tactical look to it. It's got Velcro strips, so you can attach, I attached my Instagram handle and a US flag down here. I also have a tag on the front. It's a 747 airplane skin tag. It's an old United airplane. This was kind of a limited edition, so I have my phone number and what else does it say on there? It just says flight crew. Flight crew and my phone number. It's cool because it came from a real 747 that United flew. This is just a United exempt flight officer tag, which kind of shows the gate agent that we're exempt from maybe having to check this bag. And then, I always have my headphones, quick and easy to access. These are by a company called Alclair. It's a company from Minneapolis that makes musician-quality headphones. They are wired, which personally I like because they never run out of batteries. You can always plug them into an airplane headrest, and they always work. And they're like musician-quality headphones, so I love them. They block out the sound. They're not noise-canceling, but they block out the sound really well. And the music quality, or the audio quality, is really, really good. So that's what I like. A lot of people like AirPods. I personally like these because they always work. Moving into the front of the bag, this pocket is kind of like the catch-all pocket. You have a counter at home where you just throw all your junk. This is kind of that pocket. This is where I keep my passport, which is not junk. I got this passport carrier from Pioneer, which is a company that makes travel wallets and passport carriers and stuff like that. They sent this to me for free, which is very nice of them. It's super high-quality. It blocks. It's like an RFID blocker thing. So I got my COVID vaccine and my passport in there. And it keeps it from getting torn and tattered when it's riding around in my bag. Eye shade in case I want to take a nap on a daytime flight. Mints. This is something you might not expect. These are wing backers. So they're little rubber things that you would put on the back of your wings. I can't tell you how many times a flight attendant has had her wings falling off, and these come in handy. They're like five bucks on Amazon for a hundred of them, and you're kind of a hero when you have one. Moving into the next pocket. This is where I keep my flashlight, all my markers and pens, iPhone, iPad, charger. And I keep my keys in here because I don't like them riding around in my pocket when I'm on a trip. And I never put them in my roller bag because if I have to check it and it doesn't show up, then I still have my keys and I can drive home. That's all that's in there. One thing about the first Tactical bags is that they have a gray interior. So when you're in a dark cockpit at night and you're looking for something, it's a little bit easier to see versus having a black interior. So just something I thought that was cool that they did. This top pouch is for my sunglasses. Pretty basic Ray-Ban cool pilot sunglasses. Here's a little thing about me. I carry sunglasses in my flight bag. I carry sunglasses in both of our cars at home, so I always know where they are. So I've got three pairs of sunglasses. They live in both cars and one in my flight bag, so I'm not constantly moving them around. In this pocket, I also carry cards to give out to kids. And then these are like little tattoos, like the water, you know, temporary tattoos. I like to give those to kids. I keep wings, like plastic wings for kids, in my roller bag, and that's usually pretty close to me in the cockpit. All right, moving into the main pouch, there's a couple things in here you might not expect. The main thing you're going to see, though, is food. I once got a really bad headache because I couldn't get food at a hotel late at night and I didn't have any snacks with me. So from that point forth, that was like 18 years ago, I never leave on a trip without snacks. I usually carry this kind, granola. You can eat it on its own or with yogurt or whatever. I usually have some pre-shelled pistachios and usually some sort of candy. Today, I have gummy bears. This is a box that came from GoPro, I forget what I bought, but it came with this little travel box. But this is where I keep all my camera gear. So I shoot with a Sony ZV-1, a GoPro, and so sometimes I'll have two GoPros in here and my Sony ZV-1. That's usually about it. If I bring my drone with me on a trip, I usually throw that in my roller bag because I don't have enough space in this bag to carry a drone plus my other camera equipment. It's just an open pocket, or an open box, so I just kind of stack everything in there and it works really well. This is a backpack, it unfolds, and when I go on an adventure, I can throw my drone, bottle of water, some snacks in there. This is made by a company called Lewis and Clark, I have no idea if they're still around. I bought this, I don't know, a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago. It still works pretty well, folds up really small inside my bag. I have a candle and a little box of matches in case things get stinky. This pouch, I keep my charging cables and a speaker for music in my room. In this pouch, I keep kind of my work stuff, so I have a little log book and a headset. This is the kind of headset I use, lots of people use different headsets in the airplane. This is by Plantronics, it's got a little molded earpiece, you just stick it in like that and it works great. We really only use the headset when we're below 18,000 feet anyway, so we don't use it as an intercom or noise cancelling, so above 18,000 feet we're usually off our headset and just listening to the radio and the speaker and just talking back and forth. A couple things in here you might not expect, melatonin, which helps me sleep when I'm overseas, ibuprofen for whatever you use ibuprofen for. This is kind of my first aid pouch. A couple of Band-Aids, Carmex, gauze pads, you never know what you're going to need. In this pocket, I carry something that is very specific, it's a garbage bag. The reason I started carrying a garbage bag is because I was on the van in Rome once. One of the flight attendants had brought a guest, they were riding the van with us, and she threw up in the back, and if I had had a garbage bag and I was sitting near her, I could have given her this and she could have thrown up into this instead of onto the floor. It's also good for swimsuits or dirty hiking shoes if you go on a hike. So I always have a garbage bag with me. Another thing, in a secret little compartment, I keep my umbrella down here. I always have an umbrella because it rains a lot, especially in Europe in the winter. So that just kind of lives down there. And then moving into the back part of the bag, I carry a clipboard for carrying our paperwork on the flight. Mostly Europe flights, we have to print out paperwork. My laptop, it's just a MacBook. And then a 10-year-old Kindle that I use for reading when I'm riding around as a passenger, or if I'm on a break on the airplane, or just hanging out in an airport. One more thing, Gorilla Tape. I've only had to use this once, and it was on a Northwest flight, so that's how long ago that was. One of the overhead bins didn't close and it was during the flight, and the flight attendant asked me if I had duct tape, and I had this Gorilla Tape. And she taped the bin closed, and then it stayed closed for the rest of the flight until they could get maintenance to look at it. I don't know what I expect to use this for. If my bag ever broke, like my roller bag ever, the zipper broke and I had to wrap it up and tape it closed, I guess I could use it for that. If my pants ripped, I could maybe tape the inside of them and get back home. I've literally only used this once in 10 years, but maybe someday it'll come in handy. So, that's what's in my bag. If you are a pilot, and you keep something unusual in your bag, like Gorilla Tape, or a garbage bag for people to throw up into, drop it in the comments below, I'd be curious to know what you carry. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe, hit the bell. Most of my videos are doing stuff on layovers, but I thought you'd like a glimpse into what's in my pilot bag. Thanks for watching. We'll see you on the next layover. Another thing in a secret little compartment. So secret, I don't even know where it is. I think it's right here. Nope. I keep my umbrella down here. One more thing. In the side pocket. No, here it is. One more thing.