Necessity is the mother of invention (part two)

Last post we saw how things are meant to be organised in the cockpit. I’m fairly certain for example that RTH has a similar theme of items in his knee board and somehow manages to use it efficiently and consistently each time.

I, however; don’t. Where I put stuff depends on the type of flight I’m doing and if I happen to be solo or with Bob.

Solo flights are easy, no one in the passenger seat means that I can just dump my stuff on there; usually the entire knee board just sits on it. The only exception to this is if I’m doing stalls and other stuff where I need a secure cockpit.

If I’m flying with Bob, then a little more creativity is called for. My VTA usually gets jammed between the dash and the windshield. This makes it readily accessible (I have a tendency to dive the plane if I’m trying to map read from my lap). The only downside of this is that I’ve lost more than one chart by accidentally leaving it in the plane.

If I don’t have the spare space of an empty passenger seat the clipboard usually gets separated from the rest of the kneeboard and shoved in the front pocket at the side of the plane. I pull it out when needed during the start and end of the flights but otherwise leave it alone in there. Thus freeing up my legs for doing whatever legs need to do during a flight.

The above seems to work, if not being exactly optimal I guess. The only issue I seem to have is with writing implements. Believe it or not loose pens can be a major safety hazard. Drop one and you can more or less guarantee that it’ll get jammed under the rudder. In aviation we call that “a bad thing.”

I tried to get around this by attaching my pen to my kneeboard with a piece of elastic.it mostly works except for two problems. One, it just doesn’t seem to stretch enough when I’m trying to draw a line on my chart for diversion planning etc. the tension seems to pull the line in a funny direction and secondly I really need to use a pencil anyways to avoid needing a new chart every time Bob pulls the “surprise diversion” routine on me. And I’ve not found a brand of mechanical pencil with a hole in the clip section big enough to fit the string through.

But necessity being the mother of invention, I have a solution. I’m not sure if I should be totally ashamed or proud of this answer.

It’s summer. I tend to wear tank tops and a loose shirt over the top. I discovered purely by accident whilst struggling to find enough hands to do what I need to that the perfect place to store my pencil, so that it is close at hand and yet in no danger of falling is ermm, well, I don’t know how to say this delicately.

It lives between my boobs.

Don’t judge me. It works.