Hello Ned, Just before the LSA workshop at the Vancouver Early Music Festival I had a custom flight case made for my Kingham lute case by CaseXtreme in San Diego: http://www.casextreme.com/. It's made with some kind of corrugated plastic and uses foam pads as cushioning on the sides and the bottom of the flight case. The Kingham case is held in place against the pads with a strap and there's about an inch of space between the lid of the flight case and the Kingham case. The case has two carrying handles and comes with detachable wheels. All sides of the case are extremely rigid once the lid is closed and you can stand on the top without damaging the case. The cost of the flight case with shipping was about $320.
I checked the flight case through from Albuquerque to Vancouver (connection in Denver) and return (connection in San Francisco) with no problems - four separate flights. The lute inside was unscathed. I'm not sure if it will fit through an x-ray machine, but if it does fit, a gate check would probably be the best way to go. I just didn't want to haul it all over the airports before boarding. The flight case weighs about 12 pounds and it is oversized (37" L x 20" W x 15" D), but no one at check in required that I pay the oversize baggage fee. It doesn't look as big as it actually is because of the trapezoidal shape rather than a rectangular shape. I have posted some photos of the flight case at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41330...@n03/. The owner of CaseXtreme, Bruce Lamb, is very helpful and he can be reached at 800-495-8444. FYI, I have no business interest in CaseXtreme. Hope this helps, Bill Eisele > Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:27:16 -0400 > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Subject: [LUTE] Traveling with lute > > It's been several years since I've flown, and I'm wondering if there's > a safe way to travel with a lute by air. Do any airlines still sell a > seat for a musical instrument? Or is there a lute case available > that's designed to withstand the abuse flight baggage may encounter? > (Having an extra instrument and shipping it ahead is one idea that's > occured to me, but someone willing to accept it is needed). > > > > Ned > __________________________________________________________________ > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
