TSA and Travelling with gear

cuervo

cuervo

Veteran
Hi,
I just finalized a gig for myself and my FS700 in Los Angeles at the end of October. Now, I'm wondering what kind of situation I'll be facing with traveling with my kit. My current plans are to carry-on my FS700 and its kit, since the important pieces can all fit in a Pelican case that will fit in the overhead. I'm wondering what kind of hoops I'll have to dance thru to get this case, packed with electronics, thru TSA. Anyone have any experience they can share that will help me with TSA?
 
Main things are total dimensions of case being OK with the airline (check their site) and number of Li-ion batteries.

TSA will go through your gear, probably turn your camera on, but not much else.
 
Just be careful with your checked baggage. I had a sufficiently padded tripod bag, but baggage handlers twice broke parts of the head. Time to upgrade to a hard case.
 
cuervo said:
Hi,
I just finalized a gig for myself and my FS700 in Los Angeles at the end of October. Now, I'm wondering what kind of situation I'll be facing with traveling with my kit. My current plans are to carry-on my FS700 and its kit, since the important pieces can all fit in a Pelican case that will fit in the overhead. I'm wondering what kind of hoops I'll have to dance thru to get this case, packed with electronics, thru TSA. Anyone have any experience they can share that will help me with TSA?
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Be it known, that LAX has the one of the highest theft rates in the country for 'baggage in process thievery'. There are TSA approved locks, which can be applied after inspection, but that means you will have to wait until your luggage is x-rayed, which means arriving at the airport even earlier than even the 2 hours or so... just expect to spend the day getting on board.

The theft rate has increased due to most people not buying the locks, and since the locks are coded so that TSA may open them 'in transit' they are only useful to prevent opportunistic theft... pro theft would have the keybook/codes and then the locks are of no use at at all.

One has to wonder about the 'theft' at such a 'secure location'... passengers are given every screwtiny possible, any outrage... yet the back door of LAX seems to be pretty much a criminal loading zone...

And of course... if criminals can get stuff 'out' whose to say what criminals could bring in... but of course we have TSA to protect us...

As for 'carry on'... if the equipment fits into the carryon baggage size, the usual procedure is that you will most likely be given a secondary 'wipe' inspection, as well as a hand search of the baggage.

The only time I've been 'taken to the second level beyond the 'wipe', is when I was hand carrying a computer device to the FCC, and my travel companion was from India... read that as 'swarthy complexion'... we were asked about the equipment and why we did not 'check it in'... obviously the idea that 'things disappear from baggage' was not of concern to the TSA and if the equipment was lost, our 'travel' was worthless... well not worthless... would have cost our respective companies about 20K to get it all back together for another round, not to mention missing our appointment window...
 
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thanx for the replies....potential nightmare scenarios are exactly what concerns me...oh well.
 
It takes longer, but I find it cheaper to drive my entire kit than to fly it.

You can also use FedEx or UPS to ship to your location.
 
David W. Jones said:
It takes longer, but I find it cheaper to drive my entire kit than to fly it.

You can also use FedEx or UPS to ship to your location.
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Along time a go the senior engineer at a company I worked for, had a 'fear of flying'... and because of his position... could demand having travel by train arrangements made... none of the rest of us could require such... it is expensive, and obviously takes longer...

The problem of course with FedEx and UPS, is that it is more expensive, and often more when compared to 'baggage overage' of the airlines. When the Wife was more active and we did travel for wedding coverage, I usually took time to find out what rental entities were in the area where we were going... The Wife liked to use 'her own' equipment, but I was always looking out for 'what if catastrophe happened'...
 
Don't sweat, airlines are well used to crew traveling with gear. I travel with gear all the time. My advice: lose the peli case. For carry-on you can fit much more in a back-pack, it doesn't scream rob me like a peli and they're lighter. Check-out Think Tank and Tenba, they both have excellent carry-on solutions. I usually carry on one back pack, one shoulder bag and give a rolling camera case to my producer. You'd be amazed how much gadgetry I can fit in those three bags! Make sure you are air legal on batteries, be prepared to be searched and you're good to go.
 
Liam Hall said:
Don't sweat, airlines are well used to crew traveling with gear.
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This. Don't worry. I've traveled with a lot of gear several times, even including customs in and out of the country. Keep tripods in your suitcase and cameras in a backpack-style case used as your carry-on. This way, you'll be able to never have your bag unattended. All they have ever done with me is pull me to the side to inspect film. I usually have roughly fifteen batteries and that has never been a problem either. It shoots straight through the X-ray machine and you're good to go.

Liam Hall said:
My advice: lose the peli case. For carry-on you can fit much more in a back-pack, it doesn't scream rob me like a peli and they're lighter.
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Agreed. Backs that have names like Canon are also bad for this. I travel with Ogio backs, which 'look' like standard backpacks. And just like Liam said, you would be very surprised at how much you could fit in these. You could fit a full FS700 setup in the Ogio Ty2.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
The problem of course with FedEx and UPS, is that it is more expensive, and often more when compared to 'baggage overage' of the airlines.
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Not necessarily. When I was with my last company, we would ship all the gear out a couple days early via Conway courrier trucks. We'd fly to the destination, and the gear would be waiting for us at the hotel. That may be more expensive, but it was much easier in the long run than having to deal with all the gear in the airport.

For me, with smaller projects, I've sent my gear (in Pelicans) ahead via FedEx Ground, which is very inexpensive and very reliable. The last trip I took that I did that was New Orleans, and it wasn't an issue at all. Baggage overage fees are so high these days that, if it doesn't even out, FedEx Ground beats it.
 
Alex H. said:
Not necessarily. When I was with my last company, we would ship all the gear out a couple days early via Conway courrier trucks. We'd fly to the destination, and the gear would be waiting for us at the hotel. That may be more expensive, but it was much easier in the long run than having to deal with all the gear in the airport.

For me, with smaller projects, I've sent my gear (in Pelicans) ahead via FedEx Ground, which is very inexpensive and very reliable. The last trip I took that I did that was New Orleans, and it wasn't an issue at all. Baggage overage fees are so high these days that, if it doesn't even out, FedEx Ground beats it.
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Unfortunately for me, my 'company travel' plans are such that I really don't know if I'm going or not, until I'm on the plane... so I usually think in terms of FedEx 2-day or the like. I'll check 'ground'... when there's time for the delivery to arrive.

As it is the next 'scheduled'... trip will be to Yuma and Tucson... in November fortunately... well still hot by some people's estimates... so I'll probably drive there and rack up car mileage...
 
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