23 replies to this topic

[CoastalAngler1]

How do you guys accomplish airline travel with your slot car stuff?

 

Look out, BPR! - see you Thursday, March 26... what to bring?

[Cheater]

Figure that you will get pulled out of line, because you will.

 

Put your controller(s) and all your oil, braid juice, hand cleaners, X-Actos, scissors, etc., in your luggage. I used to also put an issue of a slot car magazine in there as well.

 

In your carry-on box, you want your cars, tires, bodies, parts, and tools that couldn't be used as weapons.

 

Jay used to always lose his bottle of Go-Jo hand cleaner because he'd leave it in his box...

[Jeff Bechtel]

The airlines got to be such a hassle that I finally started shipping all my stuff via UPS.

[Phil Hackett]

The airlines got to be such a hassle that I finally started shipping all my stuff via UPS.

 

I was doing that back in the 1990s. Made it easy to get in and out of the airport without all the race stuff. One checked bag and that was it.

 

Considering the expense of airline tickets and checked luggage fees, the airport security hassle, the probable rerouting of your luggage (your equipment) to Antarctica, and the major pain-in-the-rear of moving that stuff through the airport, I'm surprised *anyone* hauls their stuff through airports and planes. UPS has tracking. Your airline doesn't for checked luggage… or they won't admit they do...

[Cheater]

There's a reason Jay and I always drive to the Sano and R4 from AL and GA...

 

With all the delays in getting through TSA and renting a car, we find that driving takes very little longer than flying. We flew from Birmingham, AL, to Midway once and never again...

[drrufo]

A customer of mine has had his Chokemaster broken by TSA twice! They broke the shaft off his brake switch and cut his cable running from the handle to the heatsink.

 

John 

[Jeff Bechtel]

I have not flown to a race since 2002. I driven ever since. It is cheaper, faster, and less stressful.

[old & gray]

 UPS has tracking. Your airline doesn't for checked luggage… or they won't admit they do...

 

Just made a flight FL to NYC a couple of weeks ago. Due to crowding I had to check my bag at the gate (no charge), when I got to New York my bag was missing (big surprise), the baggage claim in New York could scan my claim ticket and tell me exactly which flight my baggage had ridden on (it beat me the airport by an hour).

 

So American Airlines does have a tracking system (they may just decline to use it  ).

[Bernie]

Put everything but motors in checked bag. Label everything. Been to St Maarten twice, no problem.

[CoastalAngler1]

Thanks for the advice - I hate checking luggage and always pack light on clothes - my guess is that with all the TSA BS, I'll take a controller and a couple cars and make a friend at the track if I need stuff...now I gotta find a flexi race while I'm in Cali 

Gonna brush up on my farsi for the natives in tehrangeles - gotta have some kabobs!  Famidam?

[Cheater]

Fuggedaboutit...

You're gonna eat at Imperial Burger like everyone else if you make it to BPR.

[Mbloes]

Gonna brush up on my farsi for the natives in tehrangeles - gotta have some kabobs!  Famidam?

 

Funny comment - ever been to Los Angeles, Charlie?

[Phil Hackett]

Thanks for the advice - I hate checking luggage and always pack light on clothes - my guess is that with all the TSA BS, I'll take a controller and a couple cars and make a friend at the track if I need stuff...now I gotta find a flexi race while I'm in Cali 

Gonna brush up on my farsi for the natives in tehrangeles - gotta have some kabobs!  Famidam?

 

Uhmmmm…. unless you're going to be hanging around Beverly Hills/West Hollywood/Beverlywood I'd suggest you better learn Espanol….

 

Never been to it but there's a Persian (at least that's what they claim) restaurant near LAX, about a mile away on Manchester east of Airport Blvd…. It's called Pars

 

PARS - Italian/Persian food

[Gator Bob]

Charlie, try the Tuna .... so what dam you looking for?

 

Ship the box and don't fly home in it.

 

I'd try and get one of those Illegal Alien drivers licenses ... just in case CHIPs is following on his bike.

[CoastalAngler1]

I was married Persian for fifteen years... ex-family in Irvine, Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, Brea... great times in Newport and Huntington Beach - the alley in the garment district is a must go if you got time... ya, I been to LA before. Persian restaurant connections are available via PM, they try to get my royal recipe for kabob sultani when I'm in town.  
The Cave was next to the convenience store where I used to go buy cigs, thought it was a night club ha-ha-ha.  We ran a couple pocket rocket bikes down the canyon one night - sober - it was scary.  
 
BPR and Imperial Burger invasion soon.  GetSome.

[Gator Bob]

Bring your pocket rockets and punch the swoopy King.     It ain't no hillclimb fast.   

[Tim Neja]

Make life easy - ship out early to BPR - then arrive and drive!!

[Mbloes]

I was married Persian for fifteen years... ex-family in Irvine, Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, Brea...

 
Fair enough... Persian isn't exactly the first thing I think of when I think of the population composition of Los Angeles.

[CoastalAngler1]

Second largest Persian population outside of Iran is LA... about 6.5 million.  Persians are cool, it's the wacked regime in Iran that give them a bad name.

Can't ship early, I got a USRA DIV II FL MySeries race Mar 14. 

Looks like Wednesday and Thursday evenings at BPR! Test/tune Wednesday then LMP Thursday??

[CoastalAngler1]

I got my travel kit ready. Anything else I'll grab in Cali. Slot stuff is going in checked luggage. Carry-on must be my laptop and presentation goodies for the magazine... can't get those at BPR.
 

[Cheater]

Have a great trip, Charlie. Tell all the folks at BPR I said hello.

[Mike K]

Charlie-

I suggest you pack your controller in your carry-on bag. Keep the most fragile item with you.
Everything else in your photo looks good to check in as long as you do not have anything flammable or corrosive.
TSA will cite and fine you if you do. Less liquids seen on the X-ray the less likely it will be opened.
 
I've been in the airline business for over 30 years and nobody wants your slot car stuff! Just pack it securely so that it doesn't get damaged by handling. I've checked a bag with everything except my controllers back and forth across the country for the past ten years and TSA seldom even opens my case. Use a TSA lock on the bag so they CAN open it if they need to. I usually place a typewritten letter in the bag explaining what is in it with my cellphone number in the event a question comes up. I have never received a call. My bag has always arrived with me, even on airlines other than my own!
 
See you Thursday. Travel safe.

[CoastalAngler1]

Thanks, Mike! Out goes the paste flux and isopropyl alcohol 91%. Wed night I'll be there to test, see you Thursday!

[eshorer]

I packed up three Retro cars, a controller, some tools and parts in a three-tiered Tupperware case that I put in my carry-on daypack for this trip to Japan. They pulled me out of line and I thought "uh-oh...."  Turned out they only asked about the laptop in the bag!