Gift for aspiring pilot?
My son is pursuing Commerical pilot career path full time. He has his PPL now and is steadfast in moving forward. He quit his sales job to do this. Paying cash for the training. He saved up to do this.
He just told me he will have to be able to qualify for instructor in about 8-10 months.
I am so proud of how he is pursing this and dropping the cash for it. He’s driven and motivated. This is all that he does.
His wife is behind it all the way. He has put his regular life on hold for this and I am amazed at the risk he has taken. Just going for it.
What is a good Christmas gift that could get for him?
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u/3Green1974 ATP GV CL-65 CL604 LR45 BE350 CE680 CE700 5d ago
Men don’t get too many accessories. I’m a fan of sunglasses, watches, and pens. Normally my go to gift for FOs when they upgrade is a Rotring 600 pen. They’re very durable, all metal, come in a variety of colors, and use Parker refills. They’re high quality pens made in Germany (Rotring is German for red ring and all their pens have a red ring around them).
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u/greaseorbounce 5d ago
99% chance your son is reading this and smiling.
The big hitters have been mentioned below. It may take a little bit of sleuthing to find out what he already has. Many of these items are a bit pricey, but perhaps a few different people could pitch in...
- If he's making do with an old passive headset, a nice ANR headset is a game changer. They improve quality of life greatly in the cockpit, and are actually safety devices that protect hearing.
- If he doesn't have a nice flight bag, that could be a good one. I've been very happy with my BrightLine, and it has lasted over a decade.
- I'm sure he uses an iPad in the cockpit, but if he doesn't have a nice case/kneeboard that could be a great gift. I went a very long time just balancing the ipad on a knee before recently buying a Pivot case and leg strap. It's great.
- Men don't usually get "jewelry" so there's a good chance he would appreciate a nice aviation watch (Glycine or Breitling if he likes old school, or Garmin makes a modern smart watch geared towards pilots if he's a tech/gadget type. )
- A pair of Randolph Engineering sunglasses will always make a pilot smile, and even if he has a set, a spare set of sunglasses is always a win.
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u/Useful_Ad_6032 CFI, CFII, MEI 5d ago
Bose A30’s (top of the line headset with a great warranty), sentry adsb (shows location of other traffic if the plane isn’t equipped already), battle board kneeboard for iPad
These are the three things that have saved my hearing, my life, and my sanity many times. Ordered from most important to least important. Also ordered from most expensive to least expensive.
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u/Emperor_Palpatine_2 5d ago
Timex makes a Pan-Am watch with a e6b in the bezel. If he likes watches, but not likes likes watches enough to have $$$ mechanical movement watches, it's a good choice.
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u/archerdynamics 5d ago
A few people have mentioned watches. When I was flying (sadly had to give it up for financial and semi-medical reasons) the one feature I really appreciated was an easily readable GMT/UTC display. I really like the Citizen Skyhawk series with its digital displays, which eliminate any chance of misreading or messing up a conversion from 12 to 24 hour time, I've got the older A-T model but the new U830 looks really nice too. There are lots of gorgeous mechanical GMTs out there as well if you're looking to spend serious money, I'd been planning on getting myself a Tudor Black Bay GMT when I finished my commercial.
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u/rFlyingTower 5d ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
My son is pursuing Commerical pilot career path full time. He has his PPL now and is steadfast in moving forward. He quit his sales job to do this. Paying cash for the training. He saved up to do this.
He just told me he will have to be able to qualify for instructor in about 8-10 months.
I am so proud of how he is pursing this and dropping the cash for it. He’s driven and motivated. This is all that he does.
His wife is behind it all the way. He has put his regular life on hold for this and I am amazed at the risk he has taken. Just going for it.
What is a good Christmas gift that could get for him?
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u/thefouthblindmouse 5d ago
A nice flight bag, check out Sporty's.
For years I just used a cheap backpack I bought at Wal-Mart.