Flight Bags

phill1174 said:
Sorry, the Brightline. Looking past the colorful zipper tabs it looks like a neat bag.
Click to expand...

It is. I had a used one that I wore out and I liked it so much that I bought this one as a replacement. I didn't mention it in the ad but I have an additional expansion module that I'll throw in.

It took about a week with the bag to develop the muscle memory to find anything I needed by feel alone in the airplane - the key was just packing it the same way, consistently, and putting the most-often-needed-things in the pockets that were easiest to get to. The bag is rugged, and the slotted handle hangs beautifully on a J-hook with no problems - this last bit about the J-hook was a much bigger advantage than I realized. If it was a shorter trip or I just wanted a slimmer bag, it takes about a minute to remove one of the expansion modules and I'm good to go. I was able to haul everything I needed in pack-rat mode - all of my pilot stuff/headset PLUS laptop, bag of chargers, even some exercise gear that I sometimes carry.

There are only two downsides to the Brightline that I experienced: first, you cannot haul perishable food in it. It's not a cooler, and until Brightline makes a cooler option/module for it, it will never BE a cooler. When I was trying desperately to be a 2-bag only pilot, this made things difficult. I do meal prep and carry a lot of food - Brightline = third bag for cooler. The food thing was too big an issue for me, so I ultimately retired it for a while.

The second issue was overall versatility: it's a purpose-built flight bag. I didn't use it for anything else. Some folks use them as range bags or photography bags - Brightline offers a lot of accessories for both of those activities - but it's not a travel bag, per se - it's niche-oriented and for a given niche it's exceptionally useful. When I resigned myself decided that I was just going to be a 3-bagger, I gave very serious consideration to using the Brightline again - but I ultimately chose another route that has less storage and organization but more options for use.

The Brightline is great. If I was still flying GA, I wouldn't even put it up for sale - I'd just keep it as a GA bag. And there's a reason you see a LOT of 121 pilots carrying them - they're fantastic, rugged, configurable and super-convenient. And, the one I have with slight wear and the additional module at the price I set is a damn good deal.
 
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