Black Diamond ATC-Pilot

I love this thing. If you love your Gri-Gri, you probably won't love this. But if you're used to the elegant simplicity of a tube style belay device and are used to the required 100% attention they require, this gives a little extra just where it counts. As BD clearly says, this doesn't fully lock. But it grabs HARD, immediately catching your climber and saving your hand, especially when your climber is resting - you can hold quite lightly. And when leading, it gives you extra insurance when things get crazy - i.e. your heavier climber pulls you way off the ground and both of you are swinging. I thought that insurance might cost some extra hassle when playing out rope for my lead climber. But the ability to hook your thumb lets line out super fast and smooth when your climber is going for the critical clip. My partner immediately noticed less rope resistance. I also have a BD ATC-XP. Yes, its a second device needed when repelling, but worth the minimal weight. In the gym, I'll just use the Pilot.

Awesome if you are a lefty! My husband and I are frequent indoor rock climbers and I was using a standard ATC. He, as well as most of the climbers in our group, use the Gris Gris. I wanted a device that would have the added security of auto braking if my climber falls.I’m left handed so a Gris Gris wasn’t going to cut it. One of the route setters at the gym recommended the ATC Pilot and I’m so glad he did. I bought it immediately and haven’t had a single moment of regret.Light, easy to maneuver and the auto braking gravity system is amazing. Perfect solution for lefties. Can’t go wrong.

I love this belay device. I had been using the black diamond ATC for years but wanted something that had a little extra safety built in for teaching my niece and nephew how to belay and I couldn't be happier with how easily this catches a fall and is super easy to lower a climber. I picked up 2 more to have on hand.

Very good belay device. While you should always practice proper and safe belaying and always have a hand on your break rope, the auto locking feature on this works very well and adds a second layer of safety for your climber. Lowering is also easy though if you pull the device away from carabiner instead of just rotating it the person does drop very quickly. Takes a very small amount of practice but I would recommend this to any climber, especially new climbers who worry about dropping their partner. My experience is with top rope only, not lead climbing but I have seen lead climbers use them and they seem to work fine for them.

It's really nice to have this when belaying inexperienced climbers. It takes all the strain off of holding them, so they can figure out the route while you sit back with a loose grip on the brake hand. Lowering isn't as smooth as an ATC, but easier than a Grigri, and you're not going to break it. No worries about getting your hand caught in the belay device with the thumb catch. You can't rappel with it, but I think it's worth the extra weight for top rope/lead.

I do a lot of climbing sport/trad and rappelling. I take out friends, family and scouts. The light-weight and ease of use of this is great for me. I have a lot of other belay options but this is by far my go to and replaced the Grigri I was using previous. I love that it can also be used to rappel if needed, gets a little hot on long decent, but auto-lock still works.

For you young guys this doesn't look like much of a descent, but us old guys wanted an extra layer of safety as we worked our way down this rock face. The ATC-Pilot provided just that. After just a few practice descents down steep, grassy slopes we felt confident enough to tackle this short rocky descent. We are not climbers and so doubly appreciated this simple, intuitive, effective device.

My girlfriend had a hard time belaying me before, I'm like double her weight, so we thought we would give this a try. Awesome belay device helped her so much with the uneven weight distribution and she felt a lot safer as well

I'm recovering from a bad fall I had about 6 weeks ago. This item, in conjunction with user error, was to blame.I don't care to explain the details much, but here's the gist: I was climbing indoors. I was climbing with a competent, yet novice climber who was belaying me. I was descending, being lowered down by my belayer. I began to pick up too much speed, free-falling from about 8 meters.Because my belayer panicked he grabbed the live rope and not the dead rope. The system did not engage and thus did not assist the braking in any way.IF YOU ARE CLIMBING WITH A NOVICE, BUY A GRI-GRI AND NOT ONE OF THESE. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.Hitting the deck like a sack of Sh*t from about 8 meters hurts like hell, winds you and might even break your back, legs/ankles etc. I was very lucky that a) it was indoors and thus fell onto semi-soft rubber and b) I landed feet, bum, back, then head.I could have easily not walked away from that fall. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.p.s I still really like this device and continue to use it when I'm personally belaying others. I really like the simplicity of it, and trust myself to use it. I would never, ever, put this item into anyone else's hands to use on me though.

The pilot is great for descending a climber. Rotating the pilot allows you to control the rate of descent and it is very intuitive, unlike the grigri. We tested some fairly big falls and the device feels safer than the normal ATC. So why 4 and not 5 stars? Giving out slack is slightly more tricky than with an ATC, esp when the climber is new to lead climbing and quickly jerks the rope during a clipping attempt. If you don't have space to move in, the novice climber will lock the pilot. I think giving slack will get better when both I and the novice lead climber get more practice. Have not tested it yet for belaying a climber from a high position.

Used it for the first time today. Took us a while to figure out how to give out slack on lead (watch the video!) but once we realised how to use it properly, it was incredibly smooth and easy to use. Locks off really well when the climber falls and is much easier to hold someone resting than a regular ATC. Controlled descent also works great!

A really, really good bit of kit. Easy to use as belay or abseil. Warm in the hand in cold or wet weather, and front lip / channel keeps your rope running in a predictable and smooth way. In my opinion better than a grigri and easier to use.

Love it, takes some getting used to, but much prefer this, I’m able to climb more comfortably knowing the misses is using this and I’m not likely to fall too far,