A Geek Goes Flying

$150 off an iPad mini 6 on sale at Amazon finally convinced me to upgrade from the iPad mini 4 I’ve been dragging between rental planes (with its slightly cracked screen and outdated operating system - iPadOS 16, released in 2023, left it behind ). Since it would now be USB C instead of Lightning, and since my old charging setup was woefully inadequate (10,000 mAh and 10W total output power), it was time to just sort of refresh things. Flight bag, 2020 edition , now: Center Section Four Top Pocket: Still the AO sunglasses and foggles. Main compartment: Same Stratus GPS / ADS-B receiver and RAM suction cup mount . At some point I might replace the battery, through the official kit ($125) or just an aftermarket battery ($30). Same  Bose A20 headset, but I needed to replace the ear pads ; I opted to use the official Bose SKU ($36 shipped). Same  Velcro PTT switch . New for the iPad mini 6: RAM-B-202-AP36U RAM® EZ-Roll'r™ Cradle with Ball for Apple iPad mini 6 ($36.50). I’l...

It’s been a while ; I should probably revisit what’s in my flight bag. The exact configuration will change depending on if I’m renting or flying one of the planes in our “fleet,” the following is pretty typical for “grab the bag and go flying” no matter what aircraft it is. Note that my flights tend towards the cross-country, and I’m usually hundreds of miles from home. I fly a lot of missions ( Pilots n’ Paws , etc) and I’ve, e.g., been stuck in Las Vegas overnight when mountain waves suggested it would be a really good idea to wait out the ~50 knot headwinds. So, here goes. Everything in this list has saved a flight at least once. The bag: BrightLine Flex B4 Swift I paid $164 for this in 2014; it’s gone up a bit since then ($196) but I think it’s still a great deal. It’s incredibly durable, expandable (e.g., I have a Center Section Three ($40 in 2015, $46 now) I can zip in when I need a bit more storage - an overnight change of clothes, a second headset, whatever), and I like hav...