Firstly, I’m not drifting off-topic. These are serious uilleann pipes-related questions.
With the recent announcement that British police have disrupted a plot to blow up planes flying between London and the US using liquid explosives in carry-on luggage, there have been reports that passangers are only allowed bring the very basic personal belongings onto the plane with them - wallets, passports and medication in non-liquid form.
What does this mean for musicians and specifically for pipers? If the rules regarding carry-on baggage are changed and if pipers have to check their pipes, what, other than refusing to fly, can be done? Will removing the reeds from the pipes do any good? Should the pipes be completely dismantled (all drones and regs removed from stock) and component parts wrapped individually?
I’m going to Kerry next week and I think I’ll only take my chanter, as it becomes more and more difficult to take musical instruments, without even talking about the recent events in London. I don’t know if dismantling the pipes will be enough either, just my personal experience, but as I was going through the customs at Paris airport last year, on my way to Belfast, they stopped me and asked what was in my hand luggage (just my pipes dismantled). Once they knew it, they didn’t want to let me through, as the pipes were made of… metal ! After a 20 mn negociation, I was eventually allowed to get into the plane. So I really don’t know if dismantling the pipes will be sufficient…
I think it is something we are all going to have to live with.I personally think that once introduced(no hand luggage) which it now is, it will be very difficult to justify its reintroduction.If it is deemed a risk one moment then it cannot be not deemed a risk the next.
Slán Agat
Uilliam
For many of the Irish-based professional and semi-professional pipers, teaching and performing at the tionols in the US is an important earner for them. This is probably going to have a serious impact for them, particularly if the carry-on ban is extended.
I might have missed something but what ‘present crisis’. Have I missed something?
I flew to Abderdeen a couple of weeks ago and the pilot put my pipes in the cockpit. Ok it was an internal flight but I did get some minor hassle before it was agreed to take them on board.
Cheers
Ged
I’ve just got back from Britain and Ireland, and luckily I missed the airline chaos by a day. I packed my half set, all dismantled, in bubble wrap, with a note that these are uilleann pipes, and put it in my main luggage. I took the reeds in my carry-on luggage, including brass drone reeds. There weren’t any questions. It’s a bit risky though if the luggage goes missing or if there’s any damage.
Kinda reminds me of a story I heard from Kevin Burke not too long after 9/11. He had been touring in the SW US and as he was about to get on a plane, one of the flight attendants told him that he would have to check whatever it was in his case. Kevin responded that he was a professional musician, there was a priceless violin in the case, and that if he couldn’t carry it on board, there was no way he was getting on the plane or ever using their airline again. The flight attendant thought it over for a minute and let him bring it on. Later during the flight, the stewardess came up to him ostensibly to apologize for the incident. “It’s a good thing you called it a ‘violin’”, she said, “If you had called it a ‘fiddle’, I wouldn’t have let you bring it on.”
Two weeks…in just two short weeks…and I was supposed to be in Ireland painting. …and piping. The odds of getting my paints on board are next to nothing now. I almost had them confiscated returning from Shannon last visit. Pack and check them you say…well, thats not gonna work as that is what I had done when they wanted them from me last time…what a fiasco. Besides, my cerulean blue is 80 bucks a tube! A $700 paintbox and about $450 in paint…not taking a chance. Freakin terrorists! I guess you’d say they won since I’m not gong to Ireland afterall. No. I’ll win as I’ll paint scenes from TN which sell better in Nashville and environs than do those of Ireland. I suppose I could buy pain ting supplies there but that’ be like buying a set of pipes over there to play when on holiday. Re pipes…would not be surprised if forced to check them over or on way back. Don’t want the baggage handlers in Atlanta tossing around my set!
We flew (Ryan Air) to Ireland from Sweden for Willie Week and back to Sweden a couple of weeks ago and there was no problem taking the pipes/flute and a fiddle into the cabin as hand luggage. I took my pipes & flute in an oblong violin case. I wouldn’t risk taking them now with the new security alert. Best to wait and see how events unfold I suppose and hopefully things’ll calm down, may take a while, as even though the Israeli army is bombing Lebanon back to the stone age and killing civilians with the help of American WMD, they seem to be getting soundly whupped by Hizbollah on the ground
It is the thwarted bombing of no less than 10 planes yesterday (or the day before) in England that is causing airport security to crack down on carry-on luggage… sadly, rightly so IMHO.
There was an official statement from the Irish ministry of transport yesterday there was no ban on handliggage or extra security for flights from Irish airports , nor did theysee any reason to implement any extra security measures. So the amount of hassle really depends on where you’re flying from.
Lewis,
Find us a 34’-40’ sailboat and I’ll have us both pulling into Bantry harbor in less than a month
With a few weeks of practice time on the waves, playing after a couple of pints will be easy.
Really the issue boils down to the rate of damage and loss of freight incurred by passenger airlines as opposed to parcel delivery services. I don’t know the stats but if passenger airlines do have a significantly higher rate (which is very likely), then that is the main concern.
Beyond that it is just the inconveneince of preparing your instrument for safe shipping as opposed to just toting it about as you would from home to session or wherever. Otherwise, many of us play instruments that have already endured the undesirable conditions of an airplane’s freight compartment.
