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.
 
I’ve finally ditched the brightline after using it for over 14 years. And went back to the mongo catalog chart case.

And now after American lost my bag with all my uniforms and clothes in it. It’s been driving around DFW the last 3 days going from gate to gate to terminal and another terminal, I’m flying my 16 day trip with just my chart case.
 
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