Are there any restrictions on flying with a standard eight key simple system flute in hand luggage? There is no ivory or other suspect appendages. I don’t intend taking a case but will wrap it in various clothing.
I was once subject to many probing questions as I inadvertently left a thickish, long aluminium cleaning rod in a flute case which showed on x-ray. On this basis surely a silver long C key could be removed and used as a weapon?
I know this is likely to have come up in the past but flight luggage rules are frequently revised.
I happen to be flying to Dublin (from the UK) next week and returning a flute to a customer but I suppose any restrictions will be global.
Never had any problems with a 6-keyed flute in hand-luggage flying into Cork [ last April ] or Dublin [ last July ], or Shannon [ the year before ]. Things might have changed, but I can’t see why. Best advice might be to call the airline and ask them ?
I take my R&R to and from Spain twice a year. In about 20 years of such trips (only once annually until the last 5 years) I have only twice been pulled up at the hand luggage scanners and asked to open the case for them to eyeball the contents. Last time was at Málaga about 3 years ago. No hint of even curiosity on my last trip about 6 weeks ago.
Just put it safely in your hand luggage and don’t worry about it.
The only thing I’d be concerned about without a case (or at least some kind of roll bag) is what happens to the flute sections if they search your hand luggage, because they’ll just pull everything out and you won’t be able to stop them! It’s horrible… happened to me in Oslo last summer when the scanner picked up some sunscreen I thought was in my hold bag and the guy just went on digging and digging through my carefully-packed stuff till he found what I couldn’t even work out he was looking for!
A friend of mine had recently posted on Facebook that she had to explain what her oboe was… but did decline to play it. I don’t think she had any issues other than that, though.
Thanks everyone, you can see that I don’t get out much. I’ll do exactly that, put it in my hand luggage without a case. I’m certain now that there won’t be a problem. I’m not using a case as the case is already in Ireland and the baggage allowance with Ryan Air isn’t great.
I’d suggest wrapping it in bubble wrap, so that the keys don’t get caught in clothing or other stuff. On my travels between Ireland, France and Spain, the Shampoo Police normally ask me to show them the flute - I think the metal lined head looks notable.
Depending on the orientation the flute lies when the x-ray machine takes the pictures, side and end view are almost guaranteed to generate a search. I have been pulled aside a couple of times. I offered to play something to show it made real music, but they declined.
L
I’ve always brought my flute in its case, never had any problems, but I’d say it prompts a search about 50 percent of the time.
The best one was in Orly, France – one of the baggage inspectors was a serious flute player herself and she was fascinated by mine, especially the Wilkes boxwood Bb flute. She asked me a lot of questions, but they were all about the flutes; I almost missed my flight because we got caught up in a discussion about flutes.
I’m not worried about the flute in the hand luggage, only that it may produce some controversy with the custom handlers. I’ll be carefully wrapping the the flute joints separately in my jaded underwear and socks… this is an outward bound journey so fortunately for the recipient they may be jaded but they’ll be clean… I hope he is not monitoring my posts on this site otherwise he’ll want a discount for soiled goods (Have I gone too far again?).
I’ve never traveled with a flute but have done a few international trips with penny whistles. Once a TSA agent at the scanner asked what it was and gave an “oh whatever” kind of response and sent me on my way. Keep in mind it was a aluminum whistle, so it would look a little suspicious in a scan. Didn’t have to take it out of my bag or anything.
I was flying to Japan with my uilleann pipes in a brand-new alloy case. It has latches that take two steps to open: first you turn them, then swing them open. I left the latches unlocked so the TSA people could open it.
At LAX the TSA guy demands my case. As I hand it to him I offer to open the latches, saying they’re tricky, but he gives me a dirty look, snatches the case out of my hands, and takes the case to some back room.
When he brought it back the latches were broken- he couldn’t figure out how to open them, so he just smashed them open.
So lock your case at your peril. Don’t expect them to ask for the keys.
BTW I’m not about to criticize the TSA too much, because I was at the Houston airport when a gunman started shooting with an AK47 and I saw many unarmed TSA people running towards the firing, other TSA people standing in the open with their backs toward the gunfire, making sure the Public got under cover. I’ve never seen such bravery in person.
I should point out that it’s not just ivory! Ebony too is banned from international travel. Don’t be surprised if your ABW flute is confiscated by an agent who can’t tell ABW from Ebony.
A flute does look suspicious to many on the Xray machine. I’ve had the TSA people make me take it out of the case, and they inspected each section. I’ve had them demand that I play it.
I was quite specifically reporting regular experience within the EU, pancelticpiper, and Norman was asking about a GB-Eire trip! I couldn’t speak to wider world travel or USA practice for either internal or foreign flights. i’m sure your advice is good on that front, but generally within Europe we mostly don’t have quite that much hassle. I daresay if an ignorant/ill-trained scanner operator really got the eebie-jeebies about a case and contents one might well get that sort of treatment, but most of them seem to be able to recognise a woodwind instrument in a case, even at funny angles and a relatively unfamiliar one like a simple system flute. I always watch them as my hand-luggage rucksack goes through the scanner, often at a funny angle, and they rarely even do a visual double-take, let alone reverse the belt for a better look, so either they’re very poor at their job or they must be seeing things which don’t alarm them because they’ve been trained/have experience to recognise them. I’m surprised I don’t get asked more often to prove what it is by showing, but I don’t. The twice I’ve been asked in something like 30-odd flights (mostly Liverpool, Manchester & Malaga, but a couple of flights each at Madrid & Shannon airports), it’s been in the open, on the table at the end of the scanner belt, and the officials haven’t been at all difficult about it - nor have they asked me to play it to prove it’s a flute! I think I vaguely recall that once the scanner operator stopped the belt at my bag, verbally asked me what was in there and accepted my reply that it was a wooden flute with metal keys and let it go.
Yes, the whole business is an issue needing forethought, especially regarding CITES banned materials, but it’s really generally not a big problem - certainly not compared to baggage handler smashed guitars/violins etc.
They’re supposed to ask you to open the instrument case for them and to handle it yourself. On my last flight, I was bringing a borrowed contra alto clarinet back as carry-on luggage. Way too big to fit under a seat, but it did fit in the overhead bin, much to everyone’s surprise. At the security theatre checkpoint, I offered to open the case for the nice TSA lady and she told me that I was supposed to be the one to open it for her, if she wanted to take a peek, which she didn’t. I guess that all of those long rods and keys (25 inches or so long in some cases) didn’t look too scary on the x-ray machine. They didn’t even ask about the (soprano) clarinet which was in my other carry-on bag.
The nice checkpoint folks here in Kansas City, though, appear to be very interested in what harmonicas look like in the x-ray.
I don’t think she had any issues other than that, though.