Powering through security on a Silver can: an airport story

[Ferruz]

Just a funny anecdote about what happened to me today, which I thought was worth sharing.
While about to leave for our trip -with a Hornet and a Mad Van in my suitcase- I decided last minute to pick up a random silver can as a spare motor. Suitcase was already packed and all zipped up, so I just shoved it in my carry on without too much thinking.
Once at the airport, while clearing security, my bag was selected for further investigation. I knew right away it was going to be because of the motor, and in fact, it was that!
While the officer seemed to understand my explanation about what the object was, he was still very confused about it, and my attempts to explain that it would have needed a battery in order to function at all seemed to be of no help. 
After consulting his colleague, he politely told me that he was going to ask his supervisor. He came back in a few minutes with two other agents, at which point I had four officers on my case. Fast forward 5 more minutes, two more were called, for a total of six agents -I kid you not- scratching their throat about my silver can 🤣 

So absurd. It's funny now, but in the moment it had gotten quite awkward, and I was getting conscious about the people waiting in line behind me.

At that point, I went ahead and volunteered my phone showing a Google search of "Tamiya 540 silver can motor" for them to look at, as apparently they "couldn't find it anywhere in their system". They nodded and seemed less concerned for a moment, but then again more confusion and head scratching followed, and by then it had been almost 20 minutes.
I told them if it was that big a deal to just keep it, that I could move on without, to which I got a "we'll see what we can do", maybe meaning by then I wasn't free to go anymore? What, terrorism? Come on now, it's not like I was trying to smuggle a Conrad on the plane!?

By the time it was starting to feel really weird, the agent finally came back to me smiling; I was clear to move on with my motor! 
At this point, I made sure to ask him and yes, the 540 Silver Can is now officially "in the system", whatever that means. Starting today, RC enthusiasts are free to travel, at least through Canadian airports, with a silver can in their carry on. You are welcome 😂

Has anybody ever had similar experiences with RC gear and travelling? If so, please post them here!

[CoolHands]

Sounds like they had a sad childhood, never having come across an RC motor before!

[Re-Bugged]

Bonkers 🤣

So a 540 Silver Can is Ok, but heaven forbid what they would make of a Brushless motor with a Sensor wire hanging out of it 😱

I had an experience with Heathrow customs once 8 months ago. (Although not RC related)

I got pulled up as my carry on took the detour along the conveyor towards the Officer. Puzzled as there wasn’t much in there I just thought it was a random pick. The Officer explained the system is  a bit glitchy at the moment and promptly but it through the X-ray machine again.

Same thing machine didn’t like it. People started building up in the queue and there were only 2 Officers on at the time and already a pile of bags for them to go through. After waiting for 20 odd minutes it was my bags turn to be examined. Riffling through it he pulled out a roll of Duct tape.

”You do know this is a banned item” he said to which I replied,

”Well no I didn’t? None of the charts or check lists mention Duct tape?”

The other Officer then joined him to stand there giving me death stare of authority.

I then proceeded to explain that the Hire car we had in the States wing mirror casing started to fall of so I’d picked up the Duct tape to hold on until we’d returned the car, then just threw it in my backpack afterwards. I was then told to wait. 10 minutes later they came back (fortunately without rubber gloves) and told me again that I can’t take it. So I told him to bin it then.

With a look of surprise on his face he said, “So you don’t want it then?”

“No it’s fine, thanks”

I couldn’t see the end of the queue behind me at that point, and was glad to just go & get a coffee.

 

[urban warrior]

At the airport I had only one "occasion" with security due to the material (sort of plastic) used by Canon for their cameras which triggered a sensor in the system.

I had more interesting "happenings" with our customs, when I ordered stuff from the U.S. to Germany.

The best was a when I ordered a set of aluminum parts to convert a Mauser C96 pistol (only a showpiece) into Han Solos DL44 blaster. One of the conversion parts is a "muzzle brake" derived from a German WWII machine gun. In a rare moment of wise foresight I took some photographs of Harrison Ford sporting the gun and the completed prop with me, to show it to the complete unaware lady at the counter. It's always an advantage when you get some time to prepare yourself for such situations.

[Gebbly]

I remember years ago watching an episode of Robot Wars. It was an international competition with people coming from all over. The program told us that the Irish team had arrived but would not be competing. This was when "the troubles" in Ireland were still a little bit fresher in peoples memory and apparently at the air port customs were extremely wary of their battlebot and pretty much dismantled it to make sure it wasnt an explosive device. So the team had arrived at the arena with a case of parts and not enough time to rebuild it, they showed the pile of bits on a table.

[wtcc5]

8 hours ago, CoolHands said:

Sounds like they had a sad childhood, never having come across an RC motor before!

Exactly my thought. Which kid, youth or man never saw an R/C car before in their life???

[Silver-Can]

I'll have to look out for that, next time I'm going through airport security...

[Gebbly]

Oh and there was the time I was flying to India to work for several weeks and so I took a little MP3 player with me (this was before everyone used their phones). At heathrow airport on the way out I wondered how hard would it be to find my way around the town to get batteries when I was over there so I bought 2 or 3 multipacks of AA batteries and slung them in my luggage. When I got to Indian customs I had a hard time explaining why I had a bunch of batteries and just what an "MP3" player was to a security card with broken English and I had no Urdu or Gujurati. He couldnt understand what it was. He evidently decided it was someone elses problem and told me to fill in some paperwork then hand the paperwork to the security guard with a gun at the exit doors.j I did so and when I got to the exit security guard and handed him the paper he first looked confused then annoyed and just waved me through the doors and chucked the paperwork in the bin.

[Mad Ax]

The closest I have had involves not RC parts, but a packet of biscuits.  McVitie's Milk Chocolate Caramel Digestives, in fact.

I had purchased a pack at the airport for something to piemunch on the way home, as it was only a short flight from Newcastle to Bristol, before heading through airport security.

My bag went through the scanner without any issues, so I picked it from the conveyor belt and was just walking away when I heard a "wait!  stop that man!"

I looked around to see what the commotion was, to find airport security walking swiftly towards me.  They took my bag from me, returned it to the security counter, and allowed the scanner operator to open it and nervously rifle through the contents.

"Oh, it's just your biscuits!" she said, laughing.  "On the scanner they have the same signature as Semtex."

 

There was another similar-ish incident, which didn't happen to me, but was told to me by an old girlfriend.  She was setting off on a round-the-world trip, and had already packed her hold luggage, when she realised she'd forgotten something important that she didn't want to be without whilst travelling alone for several months.  She went and retrieved it from that secret hiding place under the mattress, and put it in her shoulder bag, with the intention of transferring it to her hold luggage before she checked in.

A few hours later she was in the queue for airport security, her hold luggage already checked in, when she realised it was still in her shoulder bag.  In case you haven't worked out what it is yet, it is battery powered and has a small electric motor inside, and was sure to show up on the scanner.  Unwilling to have such a personal item projected on a screen for everyone around to see, she had no option but to discretely drop it into a waste bin before she reached the scanner.  She said it was one of the saddest moments of her life, as it was apparently pretty good at doing what it did.

[JimBear]

Oh man, don't you know it, @Ferruz? It's obvious - the silver can has magnets and though tiny, they are still strong enough to attract the security to the motor - they just couldn't resist the force of a Mabuchi.

What would have happened if you had  brought a Conrad - the world would've bent itself inside out!

I've only spent a few times explaining the workings of light meters and analogue cameras - someone even recognised a Leica.

[donfilippo]

Unfortunately I have a long history of trouble with my carry-on...  As I use my backpack for a lot of activitities like hiking, bike-trips, RC, etc. I often forget little tools in it. There have been at least three occasions where they found something in it that is not allowed on-board. Only a few weeks ago I had to give up possesion of a tiny hex driver that I had in it and completely forgotten about. In order to prevent the problem I have now decided to buy another backpack that will be used exclusively for air travel.

[Elbowloh]

26 minutes ago, donfilippo said:

Unfortunately I have a long history of trouble with my carry-on...  As I use my backpack for a lot of activitities like hiking, bike-trips, RC, etc. I often forget little tools in it. There have been at least three occasions where they found something in it that is not allowed on-board. Only a few weeks ago I had to give up possesion of a tiny hex driver that I had in it and completely forgotten about. In order to prevent the problem I have now decided to buy another backpack that will be used exclusively for air travel.

I've accidentally taken bicycle multitools through airport security a number of times and they've never been picked up by the scanners.

[Torhaantje]

1 hour ago, Silver-Can said:

I'll have to look out for that, next time I'm going through airport security...

At least you're in the system now.

[Silver-Can]

53 minutes ago, Torhaantje said:

At least you're in the system now.

🥸...I'll have to go in disguise 🤣🤣

[JimBear]

5 minutes ago, Silver-Can said:

🥸...I'll have to go in disguise 🤣🤣

With that nickname of yours, well ...

[mtbkym01]

Years ago I was travelling with my old KO Propo EX5 27Mhz transmitter. It was in its original box and styrofoam packaging. I had it seperate as carry on. Airport security opened after it passed through their X-ray to examine it?? He then proceeded to tell me that I had to check it in? Mind you, I was transiting through this airport but had to clear security again to re-check my bag. When I asked why, the security buffoon decided that the EX5 looked like a gun?? I said on what planet does it look like a gun? He said it’s got a trigger. I was truely dumbfounded by the stupidity. Luckily, it was treated nicely checked in and made it unscathed to my destination.

Maybe it looks like a gun on Tatooine?

[ADRay1000]

I carried an RC10 with all the gear from Boston to California and back, no problem. 
 

it was 1991 though 😬

[Otis311]

13 hours ago, Ferruz said:

it's not like I was trying to smuggle a Conrad on the plane!?

"You can't say Conrad on an airplane" 

(Meet the Parents reference)  

[MadAnt]

What's funny is that on TV they only show the smart airport security officers. This time you got the dumb ones. Really! No one there can identify an electric motor? The same size motor is used in swiffer vacuums and many other things. These things come in all sorts of sizes, the fact that someone who is trained cannot identify something like this by simply examining, being told it's an electric motor and looking it up is baffling. It's funny, but it's also sad.

 

[alvinlwh]

I will strongly advise against carrying any model stuff, RC or otherwise, as hand carry. They are unfamiliar items to most people and to make it worse, might be thought as parts to build something more sinister. Another thing about RC kits (whole kits) is they have screws, tools and usually oil and grease, that even if you made an attempt to remove, can easily be missed. 

I had flew long hual with models for decades and had checked in static and RC kits, tools, paints, even airsoft guns, all with absolutely no problem. The only thing you must hand carry is lipo batteries. 

(note, I never flew to or from USA so never had experience with the horror show called TSA)

 

 

[Ray_ve]

Not RC but a colleague and I needed to take a measurement device as hand-carry through security at the airport.

This device also included spare batteries and some loose connection cables and all was packed in a carrying case.

So as it passed through the scanner, I saw the image on the scanner.

It showed this case with an electronic device with a big dail, a lot of round objects around it (the spare batteries) and cables running all over it. Easily to mistake to be some sort of sinister bomb-like device.

I said to my colleague, 'I think there will be some questions'..... Indeed security really wanted us to open that case, slowly.... 

[alvinlwh]

20 hours ago, Ray_ve said:

Not RC but a colleague and I needed to take a measurement device as hand-carry through security at the airport.

This device also included spare batteries and some loose connection cables and all was packed in a carrying case.

So as it passed through the scanner, I saw the image on the scanner.

It showed this case with an electronic device with a big dail, a lot of round objects around it (the spare batteries) and cables running all over it. Easily to mistake to be some sort of sinister bomb-like device.

I said to my colleague, 'I think there will be some questions'..... Indeed security really wanted us to open that case, slowly.... 

I had that before, with a rice cooker. On xray, it looks like a pressure cooker bomb, metal pot like thing with electronics and wire coming out of it. The security officers were even having a bet among themselves to what it really is before they got me to open it (I still remember a lady won the bet). 

[Nick G]

God , how times have changed . Back in the late 70's/ early 80's when living in Brunei and traveling back and forth to school 3 times a year we used to load up our jackets with badges specifically to set the scanners off . I used to travel with a swiss army knife in my pocket and on at least one occasion a dive knife in my carry on . 

 

Simpler times 

 

Nick