When you consider that we spend over half of our lives, six weeks at a time, and more with training and extended tours, living abroad, having the right gear AND packing within airline limits is a tricky art indeed. I figured I'd share the experience......
First, you need your work gear. This will include all the cool pilot stuff, like an aviation headset, a good old David Clark for yours truly, a couple of uniforms (they have us dress up like airline joes, looks quite silly in my opinion, I'm all for nomex flight suits), work footwear of some sort, for I've seen everything from black sandals and socks to black running shoes to black dress shoes to black flying boots, as long as they're black. I got no end of ribbing for showing up in Romania with boots that were dark brown. I have black Magnums now, they're SWAT boots, so I guess I could handle abseiling into a hostage rescue situation if the need should arise. And climate weighs heavily into what you need as well, for winter in Kazakhstan will require some serious cold weather gear and a poopy-suit, a divers drysuit modified for piloting (added zippers and pockets and velcro for more gear!), and that added bulk will probably require a suitcase in itself, or you could be posted to many of our bases a stones throw from the equator where flip-flops and shorts would better suit. Most bases have daily laundry service, so you really don't need much, depending on how much variety you like in your day to day apparel. Pack accordingly. Running week long sim sessions in Norway, and hitting the town every night, I liked wearing a leather jacket out, but it doesn't take much travelling to figure out how impractical they are. Goretex shells and polar fleeces are the way to go.
I treated myself to an Omega Seamaster Automatic when I first made Captain on the S61. One serious pilot watch, I'm still amazed at how those tiny mechanical gears, springs and weights can keep accurate time simply from the movement of regular activity, but do you really want to be showing off an expensive watch in the back alleys of Mombasa? I now wear a G-Shock pilot model (GW3000B) while overseas. It's extremely durable, updates automatically from satellite signals, solar power charges the battery, it keeps time in two time zones, has a stop watch and alarm, and if it's ever stolen, it won't my hurt my wallet nearly as much as losing my Omega. And it looks sort of cool.
I give luggage far more thought than I should, but when you live out of the things and travel as much as we do, they have to meet some considerations. While most of us travel enough to get "Gold" status on the airlines, getting us into the priority lines for check in, security, boarding, lounge access, etc, it also gets us additional baggage allowances. So I can check three 30kg bags if I wanted, but the last local airline in Tanzania only allows one 23kg bag and charges $200 for each additional bag, so I keep it down to one. I've never really been posted to one base for long enough, or with enough confidence in returning, to leave much behind besides some toiletries and uniforms, so taking everything for six weeks to/from and keeping under 23kgs with one checked bag is a balancing act. Do I take the snorkeling gear, the survival knife, and some Canadian maple syrup, or my travel guitar, multitool and granola bars for the tour??? You can't take it all.
The first thing I did was check maximum baggage sizes for check in and carry on, readily available online for all the airlines. It took me a few tours to discover that Air Canada's limit was higher than most of the world, and it seems the airlines are ever more stringent on confirming that you are following their rules, and I've been stuck repacking and making sad faces to get my luggage to the next destination in Romania and Tanzania, which adds stress to an already long day, so I go with the smallest and lightest airline limit now. My nylon suitcase was left on the ramp once in pouring rain in Istanbul, and everything inside was thoroughly soaked, so I bought the lightest weight hard shell Samsonite that was right at the maximum limit for checked luggage size. It's so lightweight I was worried it wouldn't last, but it's got hundreds of thousands of air travel under it's belt and so far it's holding up admirably! Put a bunch of gawdy stickers on it so you can find it quickly when you collect at destination.
Carry on is tricky, for me at least, as some airlines only allow 8kg, and my carry on weighs nearly 4kg with nothing in it! I'll be replacing it with something lighter as I got caught again on this trip. When you are travelling around the world, often with four or five legs, often through third world countries, you'd do better to just assume your checked baggage will be lost and be pleasantly surprised when it actually does meet you at your final destination. But that means carrying a few changes of clothes, and valuables you don't wish to lose and need, like your aviation headset, and your laptop, and camera, and ereader, and...and...and....it doesn't take long to exceed that 4kg. You are allowed an additional smaller purse or laptop bag, in addition to your roller carry on, but it has to be very small and light. I'll be honest, I get stressed packing my shit. Somewhere like Romania where anything can be bought is one thing, someplace like Mtwara were you can probably find toothpaste but little else, is an entirely different matter.
I'll admit to loving my Kindle, with it's free 3G network access and wireless, I can download books anywhere in the world, and I read ALOT, and paper is heavier than one thinks. Throw a few magazines in your carry on at each stop as you travel and see how heavy your bag is when you arrive. Admittedly I have a thing for knives. I think they're cool. I spend most of my time at home in the woods, either hunting or fishing or snowshoeing and hiking, and after numerous survival courses in Canada's North, I couldn't imagine heading out without a knife. Flying over rural Africa enroute to Dar es Salaam? I may never, ever need the thing, but I feel far better having it handy. I've got a bunch of them, but I'm now carrying a Gerber LMF II, designed for U.S. Air Force aircrew as a survival knife. You can even lash it to a stick and make a spear! How cool is that? I was carrying ESEE knives, anyone in the know is well aware of these survival tools, but I found the high carbon steel, while crazy-ass sharp, rusts far too quickly. Leatherman now makes a "Skeletool", a bare bones multitool that is small enough to carry everyday as a pocketknife, and can open beer bottles. Very important. It's always on me. A small aluminum Pelican 1910 flashlight, bright enough to check the float bottle pressure and tail rotor gear box gauges on the AW139, is usually in my pocket, and handy for the numerous power outages in Africa. I did carry a travel bug net, but every hotel where you would possibly need one, has one, and if you keep the doors shut and air con on, you don't even need to pull it down.
Now depending on where you are, you probably need more entertainment than your laptop and ereader can provide, so depending on where I'm going and the whole baggage weight chestnut, I like to have swim gear and snorkeling gear, a frisbee, running gear, my TRX to exercise, fishing gear, a deck of cards, a camera and a big ass lens if a safari is on the plate. Binoculars for the same reason. I have Swarovski 8X32s that are quite simply stunning, but I'd cry if I ever lost them, so I generally just carry a tiny pair of Steiners unless I KNOW I'm going on safari (or possibly hunting...fingers crossed). My goretex shell is ridiculously lightweight and stuffs into a tiny bag I can keep in my pack all the time. Speaking of packs, I've had a few broken zippers and torn straps so I go exclusively with Maxpedition packs now, and I've got such a variety I never know which one to take, but their Condor-II seems to best fit my needs. I'm hoping no over-zealous check in girl ever gives me grief for using it as my laptop bag, as it does exceed the maximum allowable ever so slightly.
Lots of gear. I'm having fun. Can you tell?
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