Halcyon Co-Pilot inside Western Flyer front section?

[yvandermeer83]

Hi all! I am considering a halcyon Co-Pilot, in part as a camera bag for a relatively small mirrorless setup. I have a halcyon Western Flyer already. The CP seems very comparable in size to a small WF packing cube, though slightly taller. I'm wondering if the CP (when empty or lightly packed) would fit in one of the WF front sections (with the divider zipped shut). Any owners of both that could verify this?

My intent is only to use this combination in a pinch when wanting a "single bag" to deal with while traveling. I'm not necessarily looking to actually work out of the CP while it's in the WF (though it would be even sweeter if that could work as well of course).

[GrussGott]

I'm wondering if the CP (when empty or lightly packed) would fit in one of the WF front sections (with the divider zipped shut). Any owners of both that could verify this

The WF front sections are about 9" wide each (with the divider zipped of course), by about 12" high. The Co-pilot is 11.8" wide x 10" high so it might fit on it's side, i.e., vertically if it wasn't stuffed, but it'd be a bit of a smash fit ... doable though.

[G42]

yvandermeer83 as GrussGott says, it's a bit of a smash

This is an empty original Nordic WF with an original Nordic CP in one of the divided front sections. I have a linen throw folded up inside the main compartment and that is it... you definitely have to squash it in order to zip up the WF, but it's doable depending on how stuffed you have it.

[moriond]

Hi all! I am considering a halcyon Co-Pilot, in part as a camera bag for a relatively small mirrorless setup. I have a halcyon Western Flyer already. The CP seems very comparable in size to a small WF packing cube, though slightly taller. I'm wondering if the CP (when empty or lightly packed) would fit in one of the WF front sections (with the divider zipped shut). Any owners of both that could verify this?

My intent is only to use this combination in a pinch when wanting a "single bag" to deal with while traveling. I'm not necessarily looking to actually work out of the CP while it's in the WF (though it would be even sweeter if that could work as well of course).

Yes, you can do this. I'm loading a series of pictures to show you a more detailed view of what G42 showed. It's actually easier to show you the fit inside a bag with a solar lining, so I've taken pictures of the fit inside a 1050d Navy Ballistic Nylon Western Flyer with Solar Halcyon interior, as well as using my Original Nordic Halcyon Western Flyer with Steel Interior holding a Nordic Co-Pilot with Solar interior.

I've also filled it with a current vintage Western Flyer Packing Cube in Violet Aether (this color is no longer available), though my preference would be to use the original Halcyon versions, which were available in both all fabric and mesh plus fabric because they are much less likely to catch on the mesh as you slide them in, and also because they under pack much better

This is a 1050d Ballistic Nylon Navy Western Flyer with Solar lining holding an Original Nordic Halcyon/Solar Co-Pilot. You can see that I've pretty much been able to show you the full Co-Pilot inside, lying within boundaries of the bag, with the corner pulled back. (You can also do this with the Nordic Halcyon Western Flyer with Steel interior, but it's almost impossible to show this with the Steel color scheme.)

Here's a current generation Western Flyer Packing Cube inside the compartment previously occupied by the Co-Pilot, which has been moved to the right. I'm going to insert it into the Co-Pilot, put the Co-Pilot back into the Western Flyer (first the one in 1050d Navy Ballistic Nylon, then the one in Original Nordic Dyneema, and zip the Western Flyer up.

Filled (Current Version) Western Flyer Packing being inserted into the rear (main) compartment of the Original Nordic /Solar Co-Pilot

This is the Western Flyer Packing Cube inside the Co-Pilot. The front pockets have been left empty

The packed Co-Pilot (rear/main compartment holding WF Packing Cube with clothes; front compartments empty) inside the Navy/Solar Western Flyer. I've tried to show the edge of the black zipper dividing the compartments at the left. It's about the level of the bottom of the Co-Pilot squooshed down, although I probably should have under filled the packing cube more. (Again, this would have also been easier using my preferred original version Halcyon packing cubes for the Western Flyer). I can zip up the bag.

Here's that same Co-Pilot with WF Packing cube of clothes in back moved to the Nordic Western Flyer. This would have the top of the Co-Pilot inside the bag pointing to the top of the Western Flyer as carried with Backpack straps.

This is just to show you what this looks like if I zip up the Nordic Western with the Co-Pilot inside.

It's doable, but you don't have a lot of room. I'd guess you would use the front pockets of the Co-Pilot instead of the rear compartment, which is the easiest one to use. You could use Eagle Creek Quarter Packing Cubes in Sil-nylon in the side pockets.

I would tend not to put things on the side of the bag with the water bottle pocket, because I'll use that pocket to hold items like a windbreaker/rain jacket or down vest, and those would bulge into whatever I put on that side of the partition. The other reason is that I'm used to also carrying the Tri-Star, where the division is unequal, and I almost always fit most of my clothes in the Medium Tri-Star Packing Cube on the left side of the bag. The rear compartment is usually where I pack slacks or dresses that require more careful packing, but generally these don't take up much room and I tend store extra papers in back.

If you want to see the older style Western Flyer packing cube in a Co-Pilot, see the #1 Packing Cubes for Co-Pilot thread started by UK-Limey in 01-31-2014
https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...s-for-co-pilot

For other pictures of those style packing cubes, see, for example, may posts in The New Yeoman Duffel Aether Packing Cubes thread
of 07-20-2017
https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...-packing-cubes


There are a pair of (older style Halcyon all-fabric) Western Flyer packing cubes at the right, in front of the open Steel Mini Yeoman Duffel

HTH

moriond

[yvandermeer83]

GrussGott Thank you, "smash fit" is what I figured, haha (nice phrase!). As a side note, special thanks to you, as your repeated Western Flyer praise on these forums have been very influential in my own WF purchase. 😇

G42 Thanks for your photo! Helpful to see that top view. Made me realize I could also just unzip the divider for a bit more wiggle room (could still fit a packing cube next to it), but then again, with the halcyon especially, not zipping up the divider would probably cause the WF to bulge more than I'd like... Worth a try though.

moriond Wow... thank you so much for that elaborate and illustrated response!! Lots of good info there. You coincidentally also confirmed my suspicion that the small WF packing cube would be a nice match for the Co-pilot, making it a very nice one bag shoulder carry option for minimal overnight trips (sans laptop). That said, I was pretty happy with my aether/mesh packing cubes so far, but I'm sure I'll now start noticing any snags on the mesh... 😂

Lots of Original Nordic love I'm seeing by the way. For me, it's OG halcyon that has recently gained my affection, especially with Wasabi interior. 🥰

I'll post photos if I indeed end up with the Co-pilot.

Thanks again all!

[moriond]

yvandermeer83

You wrote “My intent is only to use this combination in a pinch when wanting a "single bag" to deal with while traveling. I'm not necessarily looking to actually work out of the CP while it's in the WF (though it would be even sweeter if that could work as well of course).”
While it’s true that a tablet such as an iPad is a better match to the Co-Pilot (and the excerpted picture that I showed actually has an iPad stored in cache in the back pocket, as well as a more extensive description of the bag contents and accessories in the parent post), I should point out that I did show that the Co-Pilot could carry a 13” Retina MacBook Pro in my 07-08-2015 post in the thread titled Will the co-pilot fit a rMBA 13?
https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...-fit-a-rmba-13

The full set of pictures are given in my post (#13 in that thread, so,use the direct link above the post to avoid having to scroll down through the whole thread). Since 13” laptops have only gotten smaller since then, you can probably fit your laptop if it’s not a 14” model. My summary was, that my laptop in a clear shell did fit into the Co-Pilot (pictures taken with the 1050d Steel Ballistic Nylon/Solar Co-Pilot shown above, but also worked for Dyneema Co-Pilots; however, since I didn’t have any aids to setting up the bag, or someone to hold it in position while I took pictures with my phone of all the places where the case or laptop fell close to the zippers, it was just easier to use the Ballistic Nylon Co-Pilot for the pictures. I put this in the category of “I would do this in a pinch, if I had to carry the laptop occasionally in the Co-Pilot, but that my main reservation was that the height of the laptop placed parts of the laptop awkwardly close to the zipper head at the side of the bag, for possible scratching/damage if this was my regular carry.

However, it turns out that several forum members subsequently adopted the Co-Pilot as their 13” laptop bag. See, for example, the 05-10-2018 thread by voidptr Dyneema Co-Pilot - Fit 13" Laptop?
https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...-fit-13-laptop
or the 05-13-2016 by masters2010 Minimal briefcase / messenger bag with water bottle
https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...h-water-bottle

In particular, take a look at the photos in both the last two threads and examine the sequence of pictures by Amy starting in post #12

There is a wholes sequence of pictures, and there’s also a link to comments citing an external blog user who had converted to the Co-Pilot from the Ristretto for his 13” laptop, but had later reported having to make repairs on his bag. A number of other forum members weighed in with their experience of successfully using the Co-Pilot this way.

HTH

moriond