traveling with tuning tools

[Daniel Lindholm]

Well, last time I was flying with my tuningkit (consisting of the basic
tools, including the tuning hammer and mutes) they stopped me in the scanner
(x-ray?) asking me to come along into a small room. Surrounded by angry
looking people one of them stepped forward and said: You have a leatherman
in your case (You know those small combitools with a small knife,
screwdriver, plier etc). -Oh, yeah.

They told me that they could take it and dump it into my bag.

-Okay, I answered. But when you're at it, you might take these other two
knives aswell ;)

I had two other knives with me that they didnt notice (yeah, I always carry
three or more knives - so dont mess with me! ;) Actually I just been at my
home collecting two of my swiss combiknives)

That didnt make them happy, as you can understand, and they totally turned
upside down of my case and went through all of my stuff taking out every
single screwdriver etc.

The thing is that sometimes they say its okay when you explain what you do
to them and sometimes they just gets angry with you when you explain that it
was okay list time you where flying with them.

Good thing they are strict about this although it makes it quite hard for us
to travel with our toolcases. I rather not send a toolcase as cargo, since
the tools are very expensive, and if the toolcase gets broken and you loose
some stuff from it, its very hard to get any compensation for it.

And when you are going away and you know you will do alot of work, you will
most likely take a whole toolcase, since you will probably end up noticing
that you forgot some tools etc.

----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 6:28 AM
Subject: traveling with tuning tools


> I'm off to Reno tomorrow, and just to be safe, I called United Airlines to
> inquire if I would have any trouble taking my tuning kit on the airplane.
> The woman at United asked me what kind of tools was I planning to take on
the
> airplane?  I told her I had screwdrivers, pliers, a tuning hammer...  She
> interrupted, "How many screwdrivers?"  OK... "I have two big ones, a
phillips
> head and a standard, and two small ones, also a phillips and a standard."
I
> was put on hold until she could talk to a supervisor.  She came back a
minute
> or two later and said she wanted a complete list of all the tools that I
> wanted to take on the plane.  However, if I wanted to stow the tools in my
> baggage, it was fine.
>
> I told her I would just take my hammer, mutes and tuning fork, and stow
them
> in my luggage.
>
> That's all I'll really need in Reno, but what if I was taking the
technical
> test and I needed my tools?  I guess I'd just have to stow them in with
the
> baggage.
>
> Anyone else ever experience any difficulties traveling with your tools?
> Never having flown anywhere with my tools before, I was just lucky that I
had
> the sudden impulse to call the airline and check.
>
> Tom S.