Gear for the mission

Helicopter Pilot

November 1, 2016 By Alton K. Marsh

Neal Lanning, 54, has 5,000 hours of helicopter time in everything from a small Robinson to a Sikorsky S–76. That’s just the rotorcraft time out of his total 16,000 hours, some of that in the cockpit of a Gulfstream jet. He operates a flight school and is a flight examiner who needs to take notes and consult the airman certification standards frequently.

Neal carries a TravelPro Large Crew Cooler (www.travelproluggageoutlet.com), $50.
Also consider: Yeti Hopper Flip 12 (www.yeti.com), $279.99; IceMule Classic Cooler (www.icemulecooler.com), $49.95 to $69.95

He wears Dual AV1 Sunglasses with Readers (www.dualeyewear.com), $100

Providing navigation is an iPad Mini. It also runs ForeFlight Pro, and he won’t fly without it—even in the Gulfstream business jet. It keeps him up on weather during the day as well. You’ll always find a charging stick in his flight bag to extend battery life for his phone and iPad.

His David Clark H10-40 headset has two cords with different plugs and can be used for fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. As you might imagine, both hands are busy “all the time” in a helicopter with no autopilot, so a kneeboard is a necessity for a helicopter pilot, he said.