Just make sure you put something inside to keep the TSA goons from
smashing your rudder/tail when they close it back up. I put some
wooden sticks in mine, cut to the right length and taped in with duct
tape, but that's not the best way, as I learned...
Coming back from Visalia, I requested to be present when they
inspected the SASS stuff. One guys was ripping my wing panels in and
out of the tube sox, and the flaps/ailerons were catching on the
material. Solution: Push harder until the delicate corners rip.
One guy was trying to remove my wooden sticks (with 2 planes still in
there!!) He was was yanking them back and forth, up and down,
complaining "these things are taped in here real hard". "Yeah,
that's so you guys don't destroy $3,000 worth of delicate
sailplanes", I said. He was pretty unhappy about this, but
eventually gave up and closed the Sportube and as he did it, I
noticed that one of my stabs had moved and was now going to get
smashed against the top of the tube. When I moved to stop this, I
thought the TSA guys were going to go for their guns! Apparently, we
are not allowed to touch anything during these inspections.
Obviously, I backed off pretty quickly. Anyway, the guy proceeded to
push the tube closed and as he did it, I heard the sickening crackle
of fiberglass and carbon breaking.
When I got home, sure enough, I had a smashed stab on one of my Pikes.
What to do with Sportubes:
--Make up some of those aluminum brackets, as described in RCSD, and
RIVET them to the sportube. These are to prevent the Sportube from
closing past a certain point. These are less suspicious, and cannot
be removed. The sticks seem suspicious.
--Pack your sportube so that things won't move around.
--Tape your ailerons and flaps to the wing panel with blue masking
tape to keep them from catching on your tube sox or other packing
material. Tape the corners as well to keep them from catching.
--Don't rely on your tape job to keep everything together. In fact,
if you tape things too hard, they may damage your plane just
unpacking them. They remove tape forcefully.
--Probably the best idea is what I saw Sherman Knight do, which is to
place a complete JT models plane pack in the sport tube. Of Course,
this means only one plane per sport tube, though. I am going to talk
to Jimmy Prouty about some custom bags with stiffeners built into the
bag that will prevent the sportube from smashing the plane inside
when closed.
Lessons learned:
0) Pack as if a bunch of apes are going to inspect your stuff
1) The TSA don't give a Sh%&t about your property
2) They don't read or care about any signs on your container reading
"Fragile", "Do not close beyond this point", etc.
3) They will actually try to remove protections you have put in place
to keep your property undamaged
4) We have become a very fearful and paranoid people
Good luck,
--Jim Laurel
On Jan 10, 2006, at 8:56 AM, John Erickson wrote:
Mark,
The Sport Tube is a good system. It is a crap shoot whether or not
you will
get charged for oversized luggage. When I flew out to Denver this
last
summer, no charge, but two years ago I did get dinged.
Denver was easy; an airport with a conveyor belt designed for Sport
Tubes
due to all the skiers.
JE
--
Erickson Architects
John R. Erickson, AIA
From: "Mark Howard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 19:33:15 -1000
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: [RCSE] Best sailplane airline case?
What's the best bang for the buck for traveling by air these days?
Anybody using snowboard cases? What about X-cess fees?
TIA!
Mark
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