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Soundbag as Hand Luggage


Rawturnip

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I fly with my sound bag as my personal item, a carry on pelican as my "carry on," and if needed a larger pelican with more gear checked. I have a VdB small pole that fits easily in the carry on case, and if needed I can usually get the camera department to pack a longer pole in their tripod case.

 

You need to be careful though, as your flight could be too full to accommodate your carry on, so you'll need to be ready to pull your batteries out and hand carry them on the plane. So because of this it is often worth it to buy the early boarding upgrade.

 

Check with the airlines your are flying for both their rules as well as the destination countries rules. US rules limit you to 100 wH batteries as carry ons, with larger batteries if approved by the airline and pilot (they won't be) 

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I travel exclusively for gigs (150K+ actual miles every year) and I have my kit streamlined for it. My two carry ons consist of:

1) my bag rig with 5 transmitters + lavs, all neatly buttoned up.

2) my run bag backpack with necessary accessories, including 4x98mwh batts, a few IFBs and hops. 

 

I then check all all other gear in one 1650 pelican. My goal is to have everything I need to shoot for a day or two as carry on in case of lost luggage. The only necessary thing I don’t carry on is a boom pole as I’ve been stopped before and ordered to check the pole so I don’t bother trying any more.

 

Be aware that TSA is different at every airport (and even maddeningly fluctuates within each airport on any given day) and you will more than likely have your rig set aside for additional screening. Leave time for this, as some agents may want you to disassemble your whole bag to run it through again. After years of dealing with this I’ve gotten pretty good at talking them out of that level of nonsense - but there’s always a chance some newbie is too scared to just swab it and let it go.

 

good luck in Dubai

 

Cheers,

Evan

 

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To answer your battery question.  ALL your loose lithium rechargeables need to be carried into the cabin.  Some airlines let lithiums that are installed in your gear go into the cargo hold, but I don't generally trust that and remove as many as I can. Especially since your flight can start with one set of rules and change as you go.  Japan was the most stringent I have found, with their security wanting ALL batteries carried on, even AA in alkaline and NiMh chemistries...\

Cheers,

Brent Calkin

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I flew to Dubai last month and, seeing my bag with whip antennas and batteries, the cabin attendant on board kindly asked to put my gear in a sealed box...just in case of a defect battery. I actually use Audio Root 89 Wh complying the régulations. But it seems it’s a new way of treating the batteries issue on Emirates flights. Their advice, to avoid this situation, was to put my gear in a small case so they couldn’t see this uncommon bag.

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You should probably check your boom pole to be certain you will keep it.  They seem to raise some alarm in security officials.  I stopped trying to get mine into my hand baggage years ago after constant hassle about carrying something that could be used as a "bludgeon".

Last time I carried one on recently (only because we needed to shoot immediately upon landing in the airport- and I was carrying a spare cheapie)  i was given a fair bit of hassle until one of the security people asked if it was a camera monopod- to which I agreed - and this somehow made it OK...  

But I feel like I got lucky on that one.

YMMV

 

Cheers,

Brent Calkin

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1 hour ago, Freeheel said:

 i was given a fair bit of hassle until one of the security people asked if it was a camera monopod- to which I agreed - and this somehow made it OK...  


Calling it a BOOM pole is never a good idea!

I've had great luck with mine so far, maybe because New Zealand is more laid back than some other countries. But I still am very careful *not* to call them "boom poles". Forgot what I referred to them as last time, might have been something as unimaginative as "audio poles".

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4 hours ago, IronFilm said:


Calling it a BOOM pole is never a good idea!

I've had great luck with mine so far, maybe because New Zealand is more laid back than some other countries. But I still am very careful *not* to call them "boom poles". Forgot what I referred to them as last time, might have been something as unimaginative as "audio poles".

+1

 

No "boom poles," just "microphone stands"

 

No "shotgun mics" just "microphones". 

 

-Mike

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Can’t speak to Dubai, but didn’t have too much of a problem traveling to Saudi Arabia. Did not take too much gear onboard though, just the recorder and a couple of mics. Checked the rest.

 

-Scott

 

 

Scott D. Smith CAS

 

“I don’t care what they’re talking about, all I want is a nice fat recording”

 

Harry Caul “The Conversation” 1974

 

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