what to pack? carry on -vs- checked bags

[WeatherPaparazzi]

Oh boy, just saw this topic and had to chime in (so I can lose the newbie status by posting more...) 

Travel, it depends what airline you are flying and where you are going.

For Scuba gear and for the real travel with Hurricane Chasing and storm chasing I use my primary airline of choice which is Sun Country.  I have the Sun Country VIP membership and they don't hassle me for weight of my bags. The security is not that big of a problem for me with my gear locked up as you have to bring it over to the security screeners at the terminal in Minneapolis.  So for the locked bags, they just wanted me to stand by to open them.  BUT THAT DEPENDS ON THE AIRPORT.  In Fort Myers on my way back, they have a new terminal and the bag screeners are not out in the open so they cut the lock off my underwater camera housing and searched it.  I had an idea they would do that so all the stuff that smelled like ass after 3 days of diving in the salt water when in with the housing for a nice whiff of oh my god that stinks for the TSA people. 

What do I bring on dive trip or hurricane chase trip.

One bag/case is the Equinox PD 170 housing.  With the lead weight and gear, this case weighed in at 65 pounds. For hurricane chasing, I would lose the lead weight for this case.  TSA searched it. 


Bag #2, Is the largest Stahlsac bag you can buy.    And I can shove just about everything in that bag for all of my dive gear.  But it also is perfect for my survival gear for Hurricane Chasing and is able to take the abuse that I give it.  Sun Country did not have any problem with this bag and the weight factor.  For the return trip, I had my 2 piece 5mm, and the .5mm skin suit, fins, mask, regs and all the other stuff needed for diving except for the tank and dive computer.  Tank was at home and dive computer was in the carry on.  This bag was locked and TSA did not open it on the return flight from Fort Myers.  From what I heard from some friends in Florida, if they see the regs in a locked bag, they know it's scuba gear and in most cases it's going to smell like ass if they open it so they won't as long as their is no lead weight in it. Oh yeah, the weight on this bag on the return trip, 60 pounds. 

Bag #3, Is another Stahlsac bag.    This is perfect for tripods and clothes and other stuff for storm chasing as well as traveling with scuba gear.  This was packed with camera tripods, XM WX Worx Weather Sat Receiver, wiring, chargers and stuff  in the bottom area and clothes in the top area of the bag for this trip.  Weight on this was 53 pounds.

Bag #4 Is Carry on and is a Pelican 1550 Case for camera.  On this trip I brought a Sony PD 170, Sony VX2100, Nikon D70s, external hard drive and a throw away Samsung video camera.  Throw away as in it cost less then $300 and I can destroy it to get the perfect shot as long as the tape survives. All in all, a big red flag for carry on.  If it is a last minute trip, you will get the S or SPECIAL on your ticket and you will get extra searched at the gate.  I don't even pull the camera gear out then because they will wipe everything down for the sniff test anyways.

Bag #5 Is really 2 bags.  I shove my laptop bag into a large back pack with a bottom compartment area for charger and stuff.  I also put all the video tapes (15 minimum on any trip), pens, cell phone stuff and computer stuff in the bag. 

Pretty much the TSA folks see me coming and one look at all the gear they know that I'm bringing a mobile office with me. 

Their pretty much cool with all the stuff if you tell them what your doing so if you fit the profile of someone going diving with diving gear, they can just look for anything out of the ordinary.  For me I tell them what I have with me if I can see the bag screeners so they know what to look out for like lead weights, canned food, survival gear, brand new unused fuel cans for the hurricane stuff and all kind of crazy stuff that I bring with. 

Sun Country Airlines has always been great to fly with.  Their non stop flights or one stop to Mexico via Dallas insures that you "should not" lose any luggage, at least I have not.  With my Sun Country VIP membership, if I do the first class upgrade, they don't even charge me for the third bag. 

The rest of the airlines will nail you for weight charges.  When I flew to Atlanta to get in for Tropical Storm Alberto, I flew on Northwest.  I was at 48 pounds on one bag and 52 on the other with only 2 bags.  They wanted to charge me for the over weight bag since I was over 50 pounds until I pretty much told the lady at the desk that she was retarded and I would just move the weight to the other bag.