Travelling With Your Rig

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Well, I have only ever been hassled one time and that was flying out of Fayetteville, NC (FAY) on the way to the Eloy Holiday Boogie. It took quite some time (nearly ten minutes) to explain what they were seeing on their x-ray machine. They were mostly concerned with the actual computer unit in the bottom of the reserve, not the cutter itself; odd. I had the rig in my Eagle Industries pistol bag as my carry on. They could not believe something like a complete rig could possibly fit in a bag that small (neither could I).

Chuck

[freakyrat 1]

Hey Zenister

I'm the one who started this thread and I just recently returned form Perris via Palm Springs, CA. I was attending a convention of pilots Private and Airline.

I flew America West and America West Express. No problems going from Houston through Phoenix. Returning was a different story though. I put up with about ten minutes of hassle at Palm Springs. They really didn't object to the Cypres. It was the rig. I had all the Cypres paperwork form the Airtec website and the USPA paperwork from their site. I also had the Cypres manual that clearly states that the AAD is a Non-Hazardous item. The guy running the x-ray machine was a problem. The lady at the x-ray machine didn't even want to read the paperwork that I had. She used tha lame brain excuse that it was printed from the Airtec and USPA website. She didn't even look at the second page I printed from the USPA website that dealed with USPA and the TSA. The young Palm Springs cop on duty also was an ignoramous who used the excuse that" Why shouldn't I check it" I insisted that the gear was worth to much money to do that and I firmly stood my ground. I finally got a supervisor and the lady explained to all the other "inherently governmental"
TSA screeners at the machine that look "he has all this paperwork the doors on the sircraft are plug type that open inward and cannot be opened in flight and that parachute rigs are OK and that the Cypres is non-explosive. Hurray Huray for someone who finally new her stuff. I thanked her for her knowledge about skydiving and went to my gate.time and went to my gate and the rest of the trip was uneventful. I believe in safety of flight etc but after flying a lot this past year I beleive we have created a monster in this TSA agency and that's why people aren't willing to put up with the real hassle to fly. I could say more like the Airtran flight I took to Atlanta several weeks ago (Houston Hobby) that had 11 screeners for one 117 passenger Boeing 717 aircraft with their's being the only gate and airline on concourse "B" . The palne was full so that makes a screener for every 11 passengers. Or the return flight out of Flint, MI where five ederly grandma's in wheelchairs were thoroughly gate searched whis delayed the flight 15 minutes. It is just cosmetic overkill and does nothing to improve safety period.

I plan to follow up my Palm Spring's experience with Ed Scott, from USPA tomorrow along with Cliff from SSK. I may also write the TSA Security Director for the Palm Springs, Airport but on second thought that's the Ed's job at USPA. The skydiving at Perris this weekend was just great with great weather.


Chris

[Racenic 0]

I've read all of the replies and haven't seen anybody address hook knifes.

Obviously we can't carry them on.
So what does one do if you are only traveling with carry on luggage? Assuming your rig is in a gear bag.

do you leave it at home and buy one at the drop zone your visiting?

ND

[freakyrat 1]

Yes you leave the hooknife at home. I always have a checked bag with my clothes and I put the hooknife in there.

Chris

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

Obviously we can't carry them on.
So what does one do if you are only traveling with carry on luggage? Assuming your rig is in a gear bag.

I usually try to remember to make sure my hook-knife gets checked.

I frequently forget, and strangely they never notice...

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[freefallin14 0]

"It is just cosmetic overkill and does nothing to improve safety period"

ya think....

"I usually try to remember to make sure my hook-knife gets checked. I frequently forget, and strangely they never notice..."

Give these TSA guys a badge and watch their ego inflate. They seem to know everything about airline security, aircraft, FARs, etc. Makes me sick to know these idiots are in supposedly in charge of my safety. I shoulda been a business major....

Bret
senior Aviation major at Purdue

[PhillyKev 0]

Quote

I've read all of the replies and haven't seen anybody address hook knifes.

Obviously we can't carry them on.
So what does one do if you are only traveling with carry on luggage? Assuming your rig is in a gear bag.

do you leave it at home and buy one at the drop zone your visiting?

ND

I hope it's a short trip. Where is your change of clothes, etc? You're only allowed one carry on bag now.

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I hope it's a short trip. Where is your change of clothes, etc? You're only allowed one carry on bag now.

Sort of. You're allowed to carry on one bag and one "personal item". That personal item can be a purse, briefcase, camera case... or small bag containing spare clothes.

This is one of the reasons I wear my rig on my back. I then pack all my clean clothes into my gear bag, that way I only have one checked bag.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[dreamsville 0]

The USPA has letters from some of the airlines that they will post soon, stating that parachutes are OK to take on their planes as checked or carry-on items. They faxed me the United and American ones. There is also the Airtec letter.

Harry

I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane.

Harry, FB #4143

[samp76 0]

Can someone post these letters as a pdf or some other format that can be printed out??

Sam

Let go of the NUT!!

[freakyrat 1]

I had a conversation yesterday with Mr Thomas Anthony the TSA Security Director at Palm Springs. In our conversation I relayed to him my recent experience when going through security at Palm Springs.

I read his Bio off the TSA site before I sent him the letter and called him from work. Turns out he's a former Air Traffic Control Specialist and has worked the same job I do but at the Los Angeles area FSS so we were on the same page. He informed me that TSA has the x-rays that were done on rigs with USPA at NAFEC in Atlantic City and will have guidelines in regard to parachutes to issue to their screeners in about two weeks. This should alleviate the ocassional hassle we go through at the airports as soon as all the screeners in the country are on the same page. That was good news. He still wanted me to mail him my letter explaining what happened to me so he could take some positive steps in the training department so it wouldn't happen again.

Chris

[dreamsville 0]

Do /have you jumped at Bermuda Dunes?

I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane.

Harry, FB #4143

[JDBoston 0]

We had zero problems carrying our rigs on Southwest from Hartford to Orlando and back.

At Hartford, they wanted to check the rigs out and seemed to be most curious about the pilot chute springs, not the Cypres. Three of us went through in a row and they only balked at 2 of the rigs. I believe all 3 had a Cypres.

One of the TSA supervisors (?) wandered by and asked the TSA woman why she didn't just open it up to take a look. I politely explained why this would be kind of a hassle. Then he asked why I needed to carry it on. I explained it was the single most expensive thing I owned and I was very protective of it. Then another TSA woman wandered by and mentioned that her son was a skydiver. Basically we were very polite to all of them, kept our cool even when they suggested doing things we didn't want to do, cracked an occasional joke, and it worked out fine. I had my hook knife in my checked luggage.

Coming back through Orlando, all three of us again went through right after one another, and no one batted an eye. We picked our gear bags up off the belt and continued on to the gate.

Joe

[sgt_ludy 0]

i was travelling from austria to morocco via germany with my rig. i decided to take it as hand luggage, without any backpack or something. in austria no problems at all at the airport. the guys on the x-ray were curious what a parachute looked like and everything was fine. nobody noticed the cypres or even the hook knife. so i wanted to proceed the same way in germany... ERROR. as soon as i pronounced the word parachute they told me that it was forbidden to take parachutes as a handluggage. i had to convince 3 different security instances before they finally told me that the pilot has the last decision. pilot said yes, the german FAA said no, i flew with my rig.

on the way back i simply put the rig in a small backpack. nobody on the x-ray noticed that it was a parachute, the cypres, or again, the hook knife...

[RossDagley 0]

My god. Is this a 'thread revival record'? 3 years old?

[sgt_ludy 0]

yeah, not bad, huh?

[mx757 4]

I explained it was the single most expensive thing I owned and I was very protective of it

what you should have told them was that your life depends on YOUR parachute and that you could NOT risk it getting damage by the bag smashers (bag Handlers) or risk it coming into contact with all the stuff in cargo bay (trust me I work on aircraft and nasty spills in cargo bays)

You need to stress YOUR life depends on your parachute and you don't want it out of your control to avoid hidden damge damages to the rig.