Trading Places

Pilot supply shops–either brick-and-mortar or online–are special places to aviators that mean almost nothing at all to the general public. They are part bookshop, part video store, clothes shop, electronics shop, newsagent, gift shop and camping store. For although they are places to get the things you need, pilot supply shops also offer you the things you want, even if you didn’t know you wanted them until you got there. It’s nothing to walk in looking for a new set of charts and walk out with the charts, two videos, a hand-held radio and a bear in a flying suit. These are the accoutrements that we gather around us.

And competition for pilots’ shopping dollar is fierce, with online stores, aero clubs, flying schools and established shops all potential suppliers in one way or another. Where once we could choose only from the meagre offerings in the flying school display case or make a trip to a major GA airport, the advent of internet shopping has added more stalls to the marketplace. Most of the fixed-base shops also offer online buying as well. Now, a WA pilot might get a new headset from QLD, or a Sydney pilot secure aviation theory books from Melbourne.

So where do you start to look when there’s so much out there. guide to pilot supply