Traveling with your (large) housings

Do airlines let you carrying rolling carryon bag plus a backpack to the plane?

For sure it’s heavier then aloud.

Most airlines here let you take one carry on bag plus a personal item like a computer briefcase or a camera bag. When they look in my Lowepro backpack it's obviously a camera bag! Never had anyone question it.

Is it overweight? Absolutely - but I just smile and act like it's stuffed with feathers.....

I travel with my Aquatica rig disassembled, but this thread has given me pause for thought. It does take a an annoying amount time to set everything up at the beginning of a trip, but I use it as an opportunity to make sure that everything is undamaged and fits together as it should.

However, there was one occasion in Australia when the first dive was going to be the best – Cod Hole. Still jetlagged and in a heavy sea, I had to set up in 45 minutes before the dive. I had enough time, but it was a queasy, hurried experience.

There's a venerable photo guru in the UK who advises no conversation whatsoever while setting up an underwater camera rig. "Tell people you're busy concentrating, and if they don't get the message tell 'em to b****r off!"

Dome port as a hat.. bahahaha, funny

Gee, is refitting the handles on a housing really that difficult/stressful. On my Subal, it's just four hex socket screws - two per handle. Provided one has the right sized Allen key, this is pretty fast and easy, even for a mechanical klutz like me.

Frogfish

Wonder if silicon grease manufacturers are moving to clear tubes/bottles. The last time I flew, I managed to smuggle (ok I forgot to remove) my small tubes of o-ring grease through in my carry-on. Given the requirements on some housings/strobes for particular types of grease, it would be nice to carry it on, but I'm not risking having to throw it out. A small thing, but annoying.

Wonder if silicon grease manufacturers are moving to clear tubes/bottles. The last time I flew, I managed to smuggle (ok I forgot to remove) my small tubes of o-ring grease through in my carry-on. Given the requirements on some housings/strobes for particular types of grease, it would be nice to carry it on, but I'm not risking having to throw it out. A small thing, but annoying.

Last time I flew, it was "liquids" they were after, that had to be the 1.5 oz. or whatever ridiculous size. They didn't let me take on a bottle of Listerine that was over the limit, but a tube of toothpaste that held twice the volume, and was opaque so you couldn't see the contents - and a new jumbo deoderant stick (the 'gel' type) were just peachy. I bet the small silicone tubes aren't on the stupid 'might be an explosive component' list - even though something goopy and thick spells higher density to me and therefore higher overall stored energy potential, from my admittedly small chemistry knowledge.

Last time I flew, it was "liquids" they were after, that had to be the 1.5 oz. or whatever ridiculous size. They didn't let me take on a bottle of Listerine that was over the limit, but a tube of toothpaste that held twice the volume, and was opaque so you couldn't see the contents - and a new jumbo deoderant stick (the 'gel' type) were just peachy. I bet the small silicone tubes aren't on the stupid 'might be an explosive component' list - even though something goopy and thick spells higher density to me and therefore higher overall stored energy potential, from my admittedly small chemistry knowledge.

Sounds like the answer is to store my o-ring grease in toothpaste tubes. For added hilarity, I won't mention it to the wife until after she borrows it .

You should look into ThinkTank bags for travelling also - http://www.thinktankphoto.com - they're by far the best bags I've ever used. They're a bit pricey, but when it comes to protecting your gear, I think it's worthwhile. I can get more in my ThinkTank Airport security roller than I ever could in my similar-sized LowePro bags.

Here's a second vote for Thinktank. I have an Acceleration and an Addicted - both smaller than Brians - which I got for travel on light planes.

Cheers

James

Sounds like the answer is to store my o-ring grease in toothpaste tubes. For added hilarity, I won't mention it to the wife until after she borrows it .

If she doesn't recognize the taste, say "I knew you were never a beauty queen!"

(uh, maybe I should translate before someone thinks I'm implying something REALLY off-color here: supposedly beauty-pageant entrants use vaseline or silicone goo on their teeth to both make them shiny and keep their lip from 'sticking' to them, preventing a natural smile in the case of nervous dry-mouth from stage fright....)

I usually use tray-mounted ULCS handles instead of the side-mounted handles on my Subal D2 housing, but always disassemble before travelling. Without handles, the housing, big dome port and the 105 MF port all fit into a Pelican case that is just legal to hand-carry on a plane.

 

Cameras (two bodies), lenses, laptop etc. fill up a large Lowepro Trekker backpack. When I can get away with it (out here in Asia, most of the time), the backpack and the Pelican both ride on the plane with me. If I have to check one, I check the Pelican.

 

Frogfish

What Pelican case will the Subal D2X housing fit into that you hand-carry on the plane? I tried a 1510 and it is to small, but can just get it into a 1560.

Last time I flew, it was "liquids" they were after, that had to be the 1.5 oz. or whatever ridiculous size. They didn't let me take on a bottle of Listerine that was over the limit, but a tube of toothpaste that held twice the volume, and was opaque so you couldn't see the contents - and a new jumbo deoderant stick (the 'gel' type) were just peachy. I bet the small silicone tubes aren't on the stupid 'might be an explosive component' list - even though something goopy and thick spells higher density to me and therefore higher overall stored energy potential, from my admittedly small chemistry knowledge.

Good old UK even bans large tubes of toothpaste.

I used to use a ridged Samsonite case which would take Subal housing, 3 strobes and all such as carry on. Yes, overweight but got it through. Then airlines from the UK started getting tighter and it went into baggage leaving me worried it might not arrive so ruining a trip.

Now with even tighter regulations, lower limits, my last trip I took a Nexus D200 housing with one handle removed, macro port and camera inside as carry on in the lightest weight backpack I could find. This just came in at 6 kg the UK weight limit. Gave me something of a possible working setup. The rest had to be in baggage. A pain to reassemble but no way around it that I can see. We are only allowed one carry on of any sort, everything must be in it at under that 6 kg.

Weight limits cuts out items I would normally consider essential safety equipment (like DSMB and spare, strobe flasher, larger torch - flashlight, regulator for pony) and for some trips even my regulators and BC have had to stay behind.

Charles Stirling