Security check at LAX airport

[OC Richard]

LAX is, I agree, to be avoided. The only good part is the takeoff over the ocean. What a view!

The takeoff from John Wayne is likewise over the ocean with a spectacular view on our (usually) bright sunny days.

It's due to noise abatement. The loud takeoffs are toward the West out over the ocean where there are few people to bother, the quiet landings come in from the East, over the inland mountains, and right over (mostly) quiet neighborhoods.

Our house is just a couple miles from the landing path for John Wayne and you can see a big plane coming in anytime you look that direction, but you never hear a thing.

Curiously, the code for Orange County/John Wayne is SNA, which stands for Santa Ana, though the airport is in fact nestled between Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and Irvine, and does not touch Santa Ana.

[KiltFitz]

Is it not a required part of highland dress? What is the standard for required? Do you mean ESSENTIAL, rather than required? Indeed it is not ESSENTIAL for me to have a sporran on when I wear a kilt but since my attire lacks the pockets that men dressed in trousers enjoy, it is ESSENTIAL for me to have somewhere to keep small personal items discrete, yet readily available.

That is a standard of modern life which even airlines have not managed to pare down.

It is ESSENTIAL for me to protect my modesty when sitting in public areas and a sporran helps someone of my size to do this.

It does not count because it is not an additional place below the waist to keep valuables, for traditionally attired kilt wearers (who don't consider pockets or pouches sewn into kilts to be a part of traditional dress) it is the ONLY place. In fact, fanny packs - so long as they don't hinder movement should not be considered luggage as they are not cumbersome and present little in the way of practical problems for the airline.

Consider: A wallet in a back pocket is not luggage, it is the contents of the back pocket. So strap it round your neck as I do when I travel and it's luggage? I have never been told that, maybe because it sits inside my jersey out of sight.

If the real criteria is whether it is visible then all sporran wearers should just take the sporran off, undo the front apron, and reattach with the sporran tucked between the front and rear apron. Problem solved.

But I doubt that any of us will have to do that because airlines are moving further away from strict interpretation of policy in an effort to secure repeat customers for the future. Recent youtube videos like the one of the girls putting on 8 layers of clothing to beat the baggage limits have ridiculed airline restrictions. Even O'Leary's trying to crack a smile these days.

The incident at LAX sounds more like a "needs more training" issue to me.

[TheOfficialBren]

^ and more discerning hiring practices.

[Highlander31]

^ and more discerning hiring practices.

More than you can imagine.

[Steve Ashton]

OC Richard,

It is interesting that you bring up the Airport designator for John Wayne.

I lived in Santa Ana back in the '50's. My dad was stationed first at LTA which was the dirigible base and known as LTA Santa Ana.
Later we lived at El Toro and I went to school right across the road from what is now John Wayne. At that time it was not much more than a small municipal strip with dirt taxiways. I think there were two small hangers and no tower or ATC facilities. It was Santa Ana Municipal in those days although it was a 20 min drive through orange groves and eucalypus lined farm roads to get to Santa Ana proper.

I remember watching some close calls between the Phanton jets out of El Toro and the uncontrolled traffic out of the Municipal.

I went back there some years after El Toro was closed and had a hard time finding my way around. John Wayne now dominates the air traffic around there so everything in the air is going in the wrong direction from what I remembered.

[ForresterModern]

I assume this was the gate agent as you were boarding the plane, as anybody before that should not have been counting your carry ons (you could have been meeting someone else to travel with and sharing the count of carry ons). I would simply have said that it fits inside one of your other carry ons, but that in consideration of the other passengers you were keeping it out of the overhead bins to leave more room for others and to speed the boarding process. Before I get on any plane I remove what I think I will need (Ipad, ipod, book, Sudoku puzzles and pencil, snacks, water bottle, etc..) and carry them on the plane separately from the carry ons so that I can expeditiously stow the carry ons and take my seat to exit the aisle. No gate agent has ever stopped me for having my hands full in addition to my two bags.

[OC Richard]

My dad was stationed first at LTA which was the dirigible base

That's cool! I live in south Tustin, close to the border of the former base. There are still two of the enormous dirigible hangers there, sitting in the middle of a vast empty field. Just a couple weeks ago they finally made Tustin Ranch Road a through street, going right through the middle of the former base, and right by the hangers. I'm probably going to take video of myself playing the pipes in front of these hangers for Derek's "Rabble" music video project.

There's a new shopping centre "The District" on the former base, and evidently some of the base's land was pledged originally to the Santa Ana Unified School District, though actually being within the city of Tustin.

And they're slapping up townhomes as fast as they can, literally in the shadows of these huge structures

[Geoff Withnell]

Man, that takes me right back! I was stationed at what was then called Marine Corps Air Station (Helicopter) Santa Ana in 1970. We used the giant hangers as maintenance hangers for several helicopter squadrons. About once a year, Goodyear would borrow some of the space for blimp maintenance, and would schedule rides for the Marines.

That's cool! I live in south Tustin, close to the border of the former base. There are still two of the enormous dirigible hangers there, sitting in the middle of a vast empty field. Just a couple weeks ago they finally made Tustin Ranch Road a through street, going right through the middle of the former base, and right by the hangers. I'm probably going to take video of myself playing the pipes in front of these hangers for Derek's "Rabble" music video project.

There's a new shopping centre "The District" on the former base, and evidently some of the base's land was pledged originally to the Santa Ana Unified School District, though actually being within the city of Tustin.

And they're slapping up townhomes as fast as they can, literally in the shadows of these huge structures

[piperdown]

[QUOTE=TheOfficialBren;1211696]Minneapolis removed my guitar strap from my guitar and didn't return it. It was secured to my guitar in the case and was a plain black webbing strap. Nothing special. Nothing standout about it. It was the principle that got me miffed.

A bit off topic but coming back from Bejing a couple of years ago my pipes had a secondary inspection by someone who had no clue as to what they were. She took them out of my carry-on case and proceeded to knock them together and on the counter. I got just a tad agitated and I couldn't get across to her what they were and started putting them together to strike up when her supervisor came over and waved me through.

[TheOfficialBren]

[QUOTE=piperdown;1212700]

Minneapolis removed my guitar strap from my guitar and didn't return it. It was secured to my guitar in the case and was a plain black webbing strap. Nothing special. Nothing standout about it. It was the principle that got me miffed.

A bit off topic but coming back from Bejing a couple of years ago my pipes had a secondary inspection by someone who had no clue as to what they were. She took them out of my carry-on case and proceeded to knock them together and on the counter. I got just a tad agitated and I couldn't get across to her what they were and started putting them together to strike up when her supervisor came over and waved me through.

That settles it. From now on I shall travel with pipes and be all-too-willing to strike up a tune in order to make it through TSA in a jiff. Haha. Brilliant.