Account of Flying with Firearms

RNH Safe travels through New Jersey with a non-permit pistol, exactly as the law allows.
IAH --> EWR --> PWM 2009-11-12	PWM--> EWR --> IAH 2009-11-15

Luggage & Gear
RNH made a trip from Texas to Maine using a surplus 81mm mortar case with an added heavy hasp much like i recommend in my lectures on this subject. Securing that was an Abus 20/70 padlock. Within this luggage, RNH's firearm for this trip was a Walther PPS with an extra magazine (stored in a padded, zippered soft case) and two additional 50 round boxes of ammunition.

Outbound Travel
At the check-in counter of Terminal E at the Houston airport, the staff was calm and matter-of-fact, however RNH reports that the woman who was initially helping him departed and was replaced by an middle-aged man once the indication of firearms was made. Perhaps he was simply more familiar with the process. Neither of these two individuals showed any sign of alarm or difficulty, however. The Continental agent walked with RNH across Terminal E to the far end, where there were a pair of tables. One had black partitions around it, the other held one of those explosive-residue detecting machines. The wait for the TSA to arrive bordered on unacceptable, taking over ten minutes. During this time, the Continental staffer was courteous and conversational, remarking that they didn't see to many firearms declared often.

Upon their eventual arrival, the TSA agents asked RNH for his key. He initially hesitated, but given that he was standing two feet away from the case, he deemed it a stilted formality to insist on unlocking it himself. As it turns out, the TSA couldn’t figure out how to operate the padlock's rotating disk mechanism, so RNH wound up crossing the tape barrier & unlocking it for them anyway. They never opened the zippered, padded case to check the firearm itself. All they saw were the cardboard ammo boxes, which they didn’t open. The TSA officers lifted a few articles of clothing, and then decided everything was fine. They locked the case, but RNH asked to double-check the padlock afterwards. He did’t think the Diskus can be incorrectly locked if the key was successfully removed, but just wanted to be certain. At that point, the Continental agent picked up all forty pounds of the case and walked away with it.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful and all luggage arrived in Maine without any difficulty. This is (perhaps only slightly) noteworthy, given that RNH had a connection through EWR airport in Newark, NJ. It was at this airport that the Gregg Revell matter took place and thus it became known as one of the most risky places to transport firearms. Given that RNH was merely making a layover there, along with the fact that the Revell lawsuit has forced some police and other officials to become better acquainted with the laws, it is hopefully likely that such troubling incidents no longer take place, there or elsewhere.

Homebound Travel
The check-in staff in Maine seemed to know the rules and policies and gave RNH no difficulty. His luggage was not marked in any way or otherwise subjected to non-standard treatment. Interestingly, the TSA at the Portland, Maine airport does not use space back behind walls or beneath the surface to perform their scanning... it is all done out next to the check-in counter. Continental asked RNH to open the case and insert the orange declaration tag, then lock it again. He took the case to the TSA, and waited while it went through the scanner. After a very friendly chat with a young male TSA screener, RNH received a thumbs-up. They did not ask for it to be opened, instead an older TSA staffer was monitoring the screens. This process, while sounding streamlined, took a bit longer than usual because the young staffer was in training. After the friendly thumbs-up, RNH was off to the gate.

The flight back to Texas was fine and all luggage arrived without incident.

Final Details & Thoughts
RNH has expressed a lot of praise and thanks to me in the past for my creation of this guide and the advice and tips i've offered during my public talks about this process. I feel that the praise and thanks is deserved exclusively by all the travelers, day in and day out, who exercise their rights as American citizens and keep staffers acquainted with the laws and policies. It is they, far far more than i, who truly keep our freedoms preserved. RNH gets extra bonus points for getting so much out of my guide and following some of my advice on the luggage and locks so precisely.   ;-)

Air Travel Ratings
If you don't have the time or the desire to read the full text of someone's account of air travel, you can simply refer to the rating shown at the conclusion of each portion of that person's journey. The following criteria are used in assigning these ratings...

Four Stars	check-in - no hassle, no delay screening - in full view, lock and unlock yourself luggage - all on time and intact
Three Stars	check-in - some delay or mild hassle screening - somewhat obscured, locking and unlocking yourself or it's done directly in front of you luggage - all on time and intact
Two Stars	check-in - major delay or major hassle screening - in a room or area that you could not enter and could barely observe luggage - luggage opened non-destructively
One Star	check-in - flight missed or passenger delayed from flying, properly packed items denied as luggage screening - luggage unlocked and opened totally in another area fully removed from you luggage - destructive entry into luggage and/or tampering with firearms
Zero Stars	This is a special category for outright theft, loss, or damage of firearms during air travel
half-star results are possible... naturally, they involve partial or mitigated problems that somehow fall in-between the above categories