Manuel1975 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Hi there! In the near future I plan to fly with some laptops, and other gear. Al this equipment does not fit in a hand luggage sided bag and im curious how you guys do this? You you just check your gear in and pack it in a flightcase or pelicase? If so: -Is this safe enough? -Is there a special insurance for these things? -Can you buy a "arrival guarantee" at the airliner for your case? Offcourse I could go for two bags: one for the laptops and check the rest of the more robust equipment in. But this mean two cases and is more expensive... Hope that you can help me, Kind regards! Manuel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 In my experience all the toughness on the outside of the case is of no use unless everything inside is properly cushioned. I used to ship $30,000 computer graphics systems around the world in a cardboard box BUT they were fitted into a proper shock absorbing system inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Hi there! In the near future I plan to fly with some laptops, and other gear. Al this equipment does not fit in a hand luggage sided bag and im curious how you guys do this? You you just check your gear in and pack it in a flightcase or pelicase? If so: -Is this safe enough? As long as you make sure the foam is cut out correctly then everything should be safe enough from damage, things going missing is a different matter. Personally I try not to check anything that is show critical. For example hard drives (as in the ones with the backing tracks on), hard to find guitar pedals, and laptops always fly as hand luggage (usually divided up amongst the whole travel party so that no one person has to go without being able to take some hand luggage). -Is there a special insurance for these things? You can get special insurance for anything... As long as you can afford it. Although you can claim for damage in transit (and having your equipment in peli cases would show that you'd taken reasonable precautions to protect the contents). Claims for missing items are a little different, airlines pay out on a per kilo basis good news if you checked a load of stage weights, not so much if its a vital laptop with lots of expensive software that's vanished. -Can you buy a "arrival guarantee" at the airliner for your case? You can ask that you checked bags are marked PRIORITY but that doesn't really mean a lot but it's about as good as you're likely to get. The only other option is to come up with a "B" rig, a duplicate set up of the essential things that can be forwarded ahead of time and then just fly with the things that can't be duplicated. Obviously this costs a lot more money and if you're don't going to need it on a regular basis then it probably isn't worth the outlay. Offcourse I could go for two bags: one for the laptops and check the rest of the more robust equipment in. But this mean two cases and is more expensive... That's what I'd do, laptops are too expensive and too much of a PITA to replace at short notice. Never check anything you NEED to do the gig (things like guitars don't count, your guitarist may PREFER to play his own guitars but if he had to he COULD use any guitar. If the hard drives go walkies then you've got no show at all). Also, always make sure you've got at least one change of clothes in your hand luggage, if your bags do go missing you'll be so glad you did this (trust me). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manuel1975 Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share Posted November 4, 2010 In my experience all the toughness on the outside of the case is of no use unless everything inside is properly cushioned. I used to ship $30,000 computer graphics systems around the world in a cardboard box BUT they were fitted into a proper shock absorbing system inside. Hi Brian, Tenx for the reply! Which brand of "a proper shock absorbing system" did you use? Can you enlighten me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Which brand of "a proper shock absorbing system" did you use? Can you enlighten me It was custom designed and made. To work properly a shock absorbing system must be designed to take into account the weight of the unit it is protecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manuel1975 Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share Posted November 4, 2010 Which brand of "a proper shock absorbing system" did you use? Can you enlighten me ;)It was custom designed and made. To work properly a shock absorbing system must be designed to take into account the weight of the unit it is protecting. Ok, and which company does produce "proper shock absorbing systems" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 The foam you get in a Peli should be fine as long as it's plucked out to fit what you're putting in there with not too much room to move about and one cut out per item. After all that's what it's designed for. If the equipment can't move and has nothing to bump in to then there's not much chance of anything damaging it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Thats assuming the components inside the equipment can't move around or be shook loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmills Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 One trick I have heard about (But it is ONLY useful in the states!), is to pack a hand gun in the checked case! When checking in the bag you then tell the TSA guy that the case contains a firearm at which point it gets taken to a room, inspected in your presence then fitted with a security seal and very carefully tracked on and off the planes. One thing no airport security type wants in to be told that is that a firearm has gone missing INSIDE the airside security cordon! This one seems to be popular with some photographers when transporting high priced optics. Regards, Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Thats assuming the components inside the equipment can't move around or be shook loose. In which case you probably want to be taking it as carry on anyway. Do like the gun idea though, if only I lived in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unfathomable Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 as regards to the hand gun option, I saw an article saying that a basic starter pistol counts and does not require a license. Airlines have to check any declared firearm properly and losing any can result in a fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Luggage does go missing, fact. It's rare but not impossible. How much hardware can you do without? Prepare a set of witten discs with all the data you will need, Then if all goes missing on the plane, you can buy a cheap lappy in the states and reload all the features form a few well written DVDs or a USB stick. Even take more that one show backup disk set so that two losses may happen before you re stuck. Even put some backup discs in the post two weeks before you will need them. The problem with insurance is tha rarely can they pay out on a loss in time for the next performance on a tour, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Lots of good advice so far. We used to ship lots of gear all over the world back in my days of working in TV news and, as has been said the key to keeping it safe is a well-fitting anti-shock system inside the box coupled to a decent (but not excessive) hard outer. This protects your gear most of the time but nothing is going to save your gear from the worst excesses the airlines can dish out (fortunately not often but occasionally--we once actually saw an airline drop a $30,000 betacam VTR from the hold of a 747 directly to the ground). Airlines tend to hide behind IATA rules that require you to claim for damages almost immediately. One trick we learned was to invest in a bunch of those "shock alert" tubes that warn you when whatever they're attached to has been exposed to G forces above a pre-set limit. These do two things. First, although not infallible, they give you a visual clue that something untoward has happened. Second, although I can't prove it, we came to think that when the baggage handlers see these they treat things with a bit more respect when they know they will be rumbled. Sorry, I can't remember where we sourced these but I believe RS used to have them--worth checking with all the usual suspects. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Hampson Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 These are available quite widely, the ones we use are branded as 'Shock-Watch' Availble from a fairly sensitive 15g to 100g. In addition to being highly conspicuous on packages they do help in the event of a claim. One thing that we used to do is fit a couple inside the package, as quite often the lower range stickers mysteriously fell of crates, leaving only the 75g stickers intact, on opening the boxes you would generally find the 25g stickers had been activated.Also available, but probably less relevant are tilt sensors and Heat extremes sensors, depending on the sensitivity of the transported equipment.Not sure wher ours come from but Even Amazon sell them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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