Just the
right stuff
We don't offer cheap, medium and top options. We offer what we think works best for pilots and other frequent travellers.
I started travelling seriously right after school. Thirty years on, there are still one or two carton boxes at my parents' home that I never really unpacked. Becoming a pilot didn't exactly reduce the need for proper travel luggage and equipment.
Surprisingly, you don't need much to be on the road or in the air. How long, where you go and what you'll do there decide what you pack — and what you pack it into. Looking for a very long time for "just the right" stuff is the basis of this shop.
We couldn't find one. So we built it.
Hard-case pilot bags are the best size for packing — but most are bigger than the space under the seat, and if you're not first on board, good luck in the overhead bin. Then it goes into the hold: the last place you want your laptop, passport, chargers and documents.
After cross-checking the maximum space under a tourist-class seat, we looked for a hard-case trolley that fit. There wasn't one. Hard cases also open to double their size, which your neighbours don't love. So we built what we'd wished for — within the limits of a standard airline seat, the tools in the garage and the skills we had (or didn't). The second cardboard model looked promising: enough lines and curves not to be boring, still buildable, and enough volume for the gear most trips need.
THE POWER SUPPLY
Working through the day in different locations and spending nights in guesthouses with bad or no electricity was the next challenge. So a good-size battery pack needed a place in the case — and since solar panels are light, one went prominently into the front, where the skin needed a stiffening recess anyway.
The 99.2 Wh battery sits just below the 100 Wh limit for carrying batteries on board, and charges a tablet and smartphone for about two days. Point the front of the case into the sun and you have power for days or weeks. USB power is reachable from the outside too, because airports and train stations are not where you want your case open while you charge.
THE LIGHT
An upright hard case is a dark void in a dim cabin or a badly lit hotel room. With a battery on board, a light was the logical next step — and the illuminated logo, a side effect, looks great.
THE LID
The lid was not going to be another space waster, with volume already limited by the seat. The bottom holds most A4 folders and normal-size tablets and laptops, flush with the edge of the case. The small things — phones, chargers, cables, headphones, adapters, passports, sunglasses, pens, keys — live in the lid, which is a strap-on but fully detachable container.
Swap a SIM card or find your earphones on a tiny airline table without digging through the case. The access hatch gets you to your passport or ticket without opening the whole lid. There are no locks: this case never leaves your hands.
THE SKIN
Aluminium doesn't rust, is light, easy to work, and looks good even when older and nicked. The rivets are full rivets, the kind that hold aircraft together — being pilots, we wanted our luggage built the way our aircraft are.
If one part gets badly damaged, it can be rebuilt by replacing only that part. We used the thinnest aluminium we could get away with, so your cabin allowance goes to what's inside, not the case itself.
THE WHEELS
Two would have been enough. The inside two are just for the looks — we admit it.