This will be interesting!

[tvodrd]

I cashed a bunch of freq-flier miles for a 1st class tickee leaving for Orlando tomorrow morning to attend the SHOT show. I just returned from my shop/garage after finding my Moto tool and converting the knife blade on my Squirt S4 to a long skinny screwdriver. I just threw it in my packed bag! :green: The Squirt is tiny, and if the bored-to-tears, TSA guy spots it I will congratulate him on a good job! The scissors, if deemed "sharp pointed," are under the 4 inch rule, and from everything else I read here, (http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm) are legal! I'm not doing this to annoy TSA but the dang thing is so useful it would be nice to to have it in my pocket in Orlando! If necessary, I will first ask to speak with a Supervisor, and lastly check my bag. It will be eenteresting!

Larry

[pipedreams]

Good luck, Larry. Enjoy SHOT!

todd

[bpfsu]

So, how bored was TSA?

A little on a side note, I wanted to go to SHOT but everything on their site said you had to be "in the business" to attend. I don't think I technically qualify unless buying stuff from "in the business" people qualifies me. Does anybody know if they enforce this?

BP

[tvodrd]

So, how bored was TSA?

A little on a side note, I wanted to go to SHOT but everything on their site said you had to be "in the business" to attend. I don't think I technically qualify unless buying stuff from "in the business" people qualifies me. Does anybody know if they enforce this?

BP


Full report time. ;D The TSA Lady at SNA/John Wayne was BTT, (Bored-To-Tears) and missed it! The TSA Lady at MCO/Orlando walked from behind the X-ray, pointing down at my bag. :green: I pointed at me. ;D My bag has a zippered-compartment at each end she knew exactly what she was looking for and only opened that end. (The center with my dirty laundry, jacket, etc, and the other zippered-end with car keys and paperwork weren't even opened!)

First, out came the Aleph McR19/Cree XR-E which she ignored, followed by a little E1E mod with an early L1 direct-drive, high-bin, green Lux III-head running an RCR123 which she managed to hit the button there-on!!!!! :crackup: My CR2 light came out and I demonstrated it for her. Lastly was the Squirt S4 sans blade. I said "The scissors are under 3" and it has no blades- I ground the little knife blade into a little screwdriver." She said that she would have to consult her supervisor. She returned in a minute or two and handed it to me, and I dropped it into my right front pants pocket. I should mention it had a "fauxton" light attached. She was completely "professional," and her Supervisor knew the rules which I wasn't remotely stretching! :thumbsup:

That was "Baiting" on my part, but I had no intention of checking my bag and really wanted it with me! I had an "Under 3 Oz" tube of Crest, bottle of Head-and-Shoulders, and OldSpice-underarm, along with a comb and Bic disposable razor in a recycled, 1qt McMaster-Carr "ziplock" that I throw in the tote with my shoes and belt.

O/T: Florida road signs suck!!! After printing really nice maps, I got major lost from the airport to the hotel and lost to the point of having to stop twice this morning to ask "Which-way da airport?" (I saw it coming and gave it plenty of time!) As to being told my continuing first-class flight from Dallas/Ft Worth to SNA/home had been canceled on Orlando check-in, due to DFW "weather," and "issues" with the ~1 hour later flight- turns-out over-booked! :rant: I was supposed to have pulled into my garage at ~3PM and actual was midnight!

Lastly, Same old Jon, same old Roth, but I got to meet scríbhneoir! :)

Larry

[knightrider]

Thanks for the report on your TSA experience. Did she say anything like - you must really like flashlights?

[greenLED]

:laugh: I wish I were there to see that TSA "blinding moment". :crackup: I love it when that happens!

[tvodrd]

:laugh: I wish I were there to see that TSA "blinding moment". :crackup: I love it when that happens!


She was setting it down horizontally on the table when she inadvertently hit the button, which resulted in a large green "splash" in front of it. You saw the light (pardon pun) at SHOT hast year. I had forgotten to lock them out. It was a "Flashaholic moment!" Next time I have to fly, I'm going to toss the Squirt in the big tote with my belt, shoes, and toiletries.

Larry

[tvodrd]

Update: I flew to Divine Providence (RI) a month ago and tossed the sucker into the tote with my shoes, belt, and toiletries. Both ways, after a trip to the "supervisor," they returned it to me. Tomorrow, I head for Chicago, and in deference to the folks behind me in the line, ain't packing it! (It's only two days without it, I'm flying back Tuesday night. ;D )

Larry

[greenLED]

Good luck with your travels, Larry. I just did some airport hopping a fews days ago, and each one seemed to operate on a slightly different set of search criteria. It almost seemed like the rule enforcing was up to the individual in charge of looking at the machine.

Some allowed lighters, some didn't, in one I got stopped because a half-used tube of Blistex looked "interesting" under the X-rays :confused: they made me take my shoes of in most, but in a couple I even walked through the "filter" with my belt on (and my watch still attached to it - it was an honest oversight on my part, I was dead tired and not thinking straight anymore), but nobody even blinked at it.

Only once did I get asked about the lights I was carrying. The X-ray dude operator called the supervisor as if she had struck gold. The supervisor took me to the "VIP" area :green: gave the light half-a-glance, kinda rolled his eyes at being called for that and sent me on my way.

[rik]

Last year, I spent January, February and March flying between London Heathrow and Dusseldorf airports. I wear Magnum Stealth side-zip boots with the composite toecaps. So do the TSA - there's a reason for this - there's not enough metal in them to set off the metal detector arches.

Like most people here would, I quickly got into a routine of putting everything loose or that they'd want to scan into my jacket pockets and opening my laptop bag while waiting in line. When getting to the trays, laptop goes in one, bag into the other, jacket on top of the bag, and get ready to walk through, held up now only by the ******* less organised than myself. It's at this point that that I hear from the other side of the metal detector arch something sounding like "toecappen". I would response with "Yes. These are ceramic toecaps. Not steel." "Toecappen *point* Your boots". "Keramische toecappen. Is Gut". Then they'd roll their eyes with an expression like "well, it's not me that gets the rubber glove".

I walk through the metal detector arch. It does nothing. Eye-rolling guard did the same thin every time. Look at me. Look at boots. Look at arch. Turn to person on X-Ray machine and start talking with every alternate word being "toecappen".

Only twice was I asked to remove my boots, and both times were at a second checkpoint. The firsrt time, nothign unusual. The second time, the man on the X-Ray machine turned to me and, in an Amsterdam Dutch accent said "Ceramic toecaps! Cool!". He could actually tell that from the density colouring on the monitor.

Another little thing I noticed was that my belt buckle set off the metal detector arch only when I didn't want it to - in other words, when I was in a hurry. It never did it when I walked through at a normal pace. I always walk through at a normal pace now, just to avoid wasting my time and theirs - I know I'm not carrying anything daft, and their machine will pick up my belt. I'm fairly sure it'd pick up anything larger than that too.

[AH-CHANH]

One trick TSA pointed out to me once was to make sure that anything metal that I was wearing, went through the detector at different times. I tried it and sure enough. If I took a step ending exactly under the arch, the detector would go off as my other foot passed the first. But when I went back through and stepped first step through the arch, then other foot through, nothing. Same goes with waist area with belt buckle and maybe a watch/bracelet. Each component alone wasn't enough to set it off, but together in close proximity increased the metal (density?) and off it went.

Just something I never really thought about and would invariably have first step ending directly under the arch instead of through it.