I flew to Italy from the US with my gurdy in 2003 and and back in 2004, and what I did was got a soft guitar case for it and carried it on. the hard case I filled with clothes and checked it. with the guitar case neck folded down it fit perfectly in the overhead. and anytime anyone gave me a problem I would say something to the effect that my musical instrument cost as much as half the computers on the plane and it wasn't going to leave my sight (ok, it was a bit of a stretch, but they didn't know that...). when I got to my apartment I switched out the clothes and put the gurdy in the hard case.
I had to answer a few extra questions going through the x-ray, but worth it. paul
