Brightline Flight Bag
With the ever-increasing array of items rapidly becoming essentials in every pilots arsenal, the design of our flight-bags of the past was rapidly becoming inadequate. Then along come the folks at Brightline with a really very simple concept -create a bag with a space for everything and make most of it very easily accessible from the outside! With this product, they have achieved their aims -almost. I say 'almost' because the Flight Bag does not quite totally suit the Australia/NZ VFR maps -they're too tall to fit the map pockets- and there is not quite enough room in the document section to comfortably fit an ERSA/VFG with a logbook, checklists and the other various documents pilots usually store and definitely nowhere near enough to fit a 2" Jeppesen folder or two. That's probably quite simply rectified however, and in every other regard this bag lives up to its promise.
It can be a little mortifying seeing everything related to your aviation activities -in my case, something a little over 30 years and probably in excess of $200,00 worth- enclosed in such a small space! But there it is, and very tidily too!
The biggest challenge, once you have filled your flight-bag, is remembering in just which pocket you will find which item! But there again, Brighline are ahead of you. Every pocket has a colour-coded tab, making it just that little easier to identify where you have stored things. A little familiarity with the bag and repeated use will of course make this a lot more intuitive.
For in-cockpit use, the document section unzips completely and can then be stored seperatelyin the aircraft, keeping just the 'flight-essential' items close to hand. The balance of the bag with and without the document section attached is superb. The carry-handle can be repositioned to re-balance the bag when necesary.
All-in-all, this is a product I have no difficulty at all recommending. It's a great bag and great value for money. It will be interesting to see what future enhancements Brightline make to an already superb product.
