Air Travel with tripod?

[James Clark]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Since I'm traveling fairly light, I think I'll go with carrying the RRS head in my pack & putting the legs inside my suitcase. Gonna have to get a bit larger suitcase, and a hard one at that!

I have painful memories of the bad old days, traveling with an assortment of ATA-style cases stuffed with view camera & grip equipment. So I'm not tempted to get a shipping case for the tripod.

I can't imagine getting thru TSA carrying a tripod, but once I saw someone in a terminal (Southwest?) walking around with a little tripod - I almost fell over.

John

Was probably me

[sailronin]

I've flown several times with a tripod strapped to my photo backpack as a carry on.
Never a comment from TSA or airline, a monopod on the other hand won't get by check in counter on the pack, it must go in checked luggage.
Good luck

[armand]

Their statement is that if it looks like a club needs to be checked in.

[dwswager]

Their statement is that if it looks like a club needs to be checked in.

Repeat...Every airport, Airline, TSA agent will have a different standard.  Some tripods (System 5 Gitzos, Benbos, Uniloc) because of size look more intimidating than others.  I would think you would have more luck strapped to a backpack or in a separate case to carry on and carrying it like a club in your hands.  My standard, at least in the U.S., is if I can get it through Reagan National, I'm probably good to go at most places.