A couple of years ago I was flying 42 weeks out of 52, most of them to the
"other" coast. I adopted a successful strategy for dealing with film going
through the carry-on x-ray...I stopped worrying about it...I run it through.
Even ISO 1600. (A nice screener at Heathrow even said that they wouldn't
hand check film up to and including ISO 1600. End of discussion.) Since
9-11 I'm on a different contract so I don't travel as much, but I'm in no
rush to make myself stand out in the crowd.
-- The one thing you never want to do is put your undeveloped film in your
checked baggage. The new machines that are going in all over the country
shoot slices of your luggage, and just keep increasing the dosage of
radiation until your packed objects achieve the desired level of
transparency.
-- If you wear Rockport shoes, take them off and stick them on the x-ray
belt. (If I had done that in Madison a couple of months ago I would have
made it to the gate faster and could have flown home on Midwest Express
instead of United. Dang!)
-- If you have a reliable processor at your destination it has ALWAYS made
sense to develop your film, rather than hauling around exposed film...One
less thing to go wrong.
-- They don't care if you don't have any film for your cameras...Why would
anyone making those wages feel the need to develop some sort of case study
that hinges on the unfilmed photographer? They have no idea what a
Mini-Trekker is...Full or empty. One of our people had a digital camera's
car adapter come apart in her bag. The little glass fuse got loose and the
screener held it up. "What's this?" Our person is no mechanical genius,
didn't know it was a fuse, but knew that it wasn't anything harmful (we deal
in chemical and biological terrorism, bombs, and all sorts of really
irritating stuff). She pulled from thin air "That's the image tube for the
digital camera." Problem solved, and off to board the plane.
-- Since you're not going to worry about running your film through the
x-ray, you don't need to worry about going through another security check at
your connection, except the extra time it may take...And that's only a
concern if, for some reason, you leave the security area.
-- Dulles has a strange side...In the good old pre-9-11 days it was legal
to carry a locking blade knife aboard commercial aircraft if the total
length and blade length were below a certain size. Dulles was the only
airport in the country that wouldn't let me take mine -- it had a serrated
blade and they didn't allow that. And that was the airport the
Pentagon-bound airplane departed from.
-- No problem with cards.
If you want to make a stink, you can probably wave a copy on the CFR or FAR
(or whatever) at the security folks. Or you can just efficiently put your
carry-on stuff, including your cameras and film, on the belt and move
through the line. Your choice.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Mike Veglia
> Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 3:27 PM
>
> The Audi Car Club of NA are sending me to cover their National event again
> this year (Oct. 5-8). This time in VA outside of DC (darn, I loved Watkins
> Glen). This will be the first time I have flown since 9/11. I have heard
> horror stories from racing photographers who travel a lot that still shoot
> film about getting film past security checkpoints. Apparently, despite the
> FAA law Gary (?) shared with us some time back, many airports are now
> refusing to hand check film. So, my questions are:
>
> We'll be flying from San Jose, CA to Dulles airport in DC. As far
> as I know,
> we won't need to pass through security checkpoints anywhere else (when
> changing planes one usually doesn't). If I opt to carry film, what are my
> chances of getting my film hand checked at these two airports? Also, can
> someone forward me the link to the FAA paper that helps persuade them just
> in case?
>
> My original plan was to have my film shipped from B&H (my normal Provia F
> supplier now) directly to a club member in the DC area who can bring it to
> me at the event. This person is also helping me find a semi-local
> E-6 lab to
> get the first couple day's film processed at, and will FedEx me
> slides from
> the rest. This has been arranged already. However, in thinking about this
> some more...won't it look odd if I am bringing a Lowe-Pro Mini
> Trekker full
> of film gear and no film???? (I'll also be carrying a Lowe-Pro Orion bag
> full of E-10 digital stuff.) Should I just bring my film back and forth
> after all and ask for a hand check (and present the letter if required)?
>
> This leads me to my next question. How vulnerable are the smart media and
> compact flash cards to the Xray machines? (I'm guessing not at all...but
> would like to know for sure.)
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