Field Notes at Mach 1.8

We talk a good game here at Field Notes and we’ve had our share of relatively-interesting adventures, but ultimately, most days, we’re just staring at computers and color swatches. We can crash a remote quadcopter into a tree as well as anyone, but we’re certainly not fighter pilots or anything.

Meanwhile, the memo books we’ve shipped all over the world are living the dream, and thankfully, Field Notes users often share their experiences with us, which brings us to Erik “Yogi” Sink, who actually  a U.S. Navy fighter pilot. We wanted to share his kind letter

I have been meaning to write this email for a very long time and am finally getting around to it. I have been using your notebooks for the last two years and have loved them all. I’ve searched years for an organizational system to help provide structure to my busy life. I’ve spent loads of money on every note taking or planning product under the sun, and none have stuck with me like yours. I am a fighter pilot in the Navy, currently attached to VFA-137 stationed in Lemoore, CA. We fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet.

I have been using Field Notes books for EVERYTHING at work, and at home. Whether it is details on a flight plan, notes from operational meetings, grocery lists, landscaping diagrams, or ideas and sketches for my woodshop, it ALL goes in the books. They are perfect in the cockpit: small enough to fit in my G-suit pocket, yet big enough to clip to my kneeboard and take notes during a flight. When we are deployed on the ship, I use them on the flight deck routinely. This is where the Expedition pack has come in handy. One of my duties on the ship is called a Landing Signals Officer, or LSO. Any time a jet lands on the aircraft carrier, there are a team of LSO’s standing near the back of the ship with radios, monitoring the jets during their approach, ensuring the pilots stay within safe parameters to land and talking them down if needed. We are up there day and night, hot or cold, rain or hail or sunshine. Every arrested landing, or “trap” as we call it, is graded, and we take notes on every pass so we can debrief each pilot after the recovery is over. The Field Notes books are essential up there. I just got home from 4 month deployment, and went through 7 or 8 books. All my friends in my squadron are getting hooked on them, too.

Bottom line, the books you make have a DIRECT impact on how well I am able to execute job, and my home life, on a daily basis. I can't thank you enough. Keep up the good work and best of luck to you. As long as you keep making em, I’ll keep buying em!

[Attached are…] a couple photos from a few days ago. The carrier pulled in to Virginia when deployment was over, so we had to fly the jets across the country to get back home to California for Christmas. These were taken close to the Grand Canyon as I made my way over. It was a beautiful homecoming, getting to see the entire country coast to coast…

Thank you so much for writing, Lt. Sink, we’re very glad our memo books are of use to you and your squadron!