Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This morning at Orlando International Airport, I attempted to take my Vagabond as a carry on. I did not have an issue with this on my flight to Orlando out of Baltimore several weeks ago (although they did open it up and look through it). When I tried to do the same thing today, the shit hit the fan with the TSA clowns coming out in full force to do a search on it. I went over and explained that it was a battery pack to operate a really big camera flash. I also told them that it's non-spillable so there's obviously no real safety hazard. One of them made an incredible discovery when they saw the "DANGER: LETHAL VOLTAGES" label, which made her firmly believe that this was a highly unsafe device. I had to dumb things down a bit and remind her that lethal voltages can exist in pretty much all electronic devices if used improperly. There's more to it, but so I can wrap this up, she told me I had to check it, which pissed me off because I am not going to pay $50 to have a bunch of idiots on the ground toss it around like a football and break it. The argument eventually got pretty heated and she threatened to kick me out of "her terminal". I ended up grabbing the thing, leaving security, and giving it to the person who dropped me off at the aiport to have them ship it back to me.

I am perplexed by this whole scenario. My airline (Southwest) did not have it on their list of unapproved items, and as I said above, I did this at another airport with no problem. I cannot be the only one who this has happened to. Has anyone here experienced something like this when taking a Vagabond on a plane?

please see teh following link

http://www.paulcbuff.com/faq.html#vairplane

No, you are not the only one, however, it has only been approved for checked baggage. I can't say why the inconsistency with TSA, but individual airlines retain the right of refusal.

You know, a nice official-looking sticker for the Vagabond II with the information in the
http://www.paulcbuff.com/faq.html#vairplane FAQ
and maybe large lettering at the top "Safe for airline carry on" might help.

Most of the TSA security folks are not the sharpest tacks in the box and it might help them realize this issue has already been officially addressed. :idea:

to quote the link you and Technical Support posted:


there is no mention of them being approved for carry-on use at all, only checked-in baggage.

While this has a little more to do with making sure the airlines don't lose your checked gear, I wrote a blog post a while back about a cool little TSA quirk that gets them to watch your gear VERY closely so it definitely makes it to the destination. Hope it helps somebody:

http://www.lbecker.com/blog/?p=986

Enjoy. ;)