alioth wrote:
But the only picture of the C140 that I had in the States that I can find online is one I took, because there just really aren’t plane spotters there to do the job
I’ve noticed photos of my planes in the US… taken by UK based plane spotters!!
alioth wrote:
I think plane (and trainspotting) is pretty much a UK only thing
A lot of airports in Germany have designated plane spotter places with signs etc. Our airport got a new plain spotter hill, especially constructed to address the needs of this group.
Almost as pointless as spending one’s time in aviation forums discussing Cirrus chutes and how many lives were saved … 
I think plane (and trainspotting) is pretty much a UK only thing, and people in other countries can’t quite understand it. (Enough people in the UK don’t understand why someone would note down aircraft registrations for a hobby either).
However, I appreciate the plane spotters – I can find lots of really nice pictures of my aircraft online, taken with much better equipment than I would ever own and new ones keep showing up. But the only picture of the C140 that I had in the States that I can find online is one I took, because there just really aren’t plane spotters there to do the job.
Mind you, they must have looked damn suspicious getting the airframe numbers of the planes, with looong binoculars, and writing them all down. Reading S/N plates of planes with binoculars is a part of the activity. You have to be slightly dim to be doing that in a country which really does (or did) expect an invasion from its neighbour which has proved it is quite happy to do it and get away with it.
I’ve brought a handled in the past in hand luggage, but carried my pilots licence too to prove a legitimate use.
But I’d be a bit more reluctant these days where learning to fly is seen as a potential terroist activity needing TSA clearance in advance!
Most of the time such electrical items don’t cause any issue on the scanner, and they never ask you to open your bag, so they don’t know if it’s a radio, walkie talkie or airband transceiver.
My big fear would be some security agent taking issue with it, and saying you can’t bring it on board. Now you’re left with a difficult decision of binning the expensive radio, or skipping the flight.
If you do decide to carry it, make sure to arrive very early, so that if you’re not allowed to carry it, you can at least have time to try and post it home to yourself, or perhaps buy another bag and get it checked in.
Also be cautious about the local laws before using it abroad. I seem to remember 10-15 years ago some UK spotters going on holidays to (Greece or Turkey I think it was?) and being arrested on suspission of terrorism activities because they were using equipment to listen into aircraft transmissions. It took a few weeks and diplomatic intervention before they were released. What’s normal at home, might not be seen that way in other places.
I flew yesterday with Ryanair from Bucharest to Brussels – with my airband handheld in my carry-on. I had unclipped the battery (so that it wouldn’t accidentally flatten itself during travel) but that was it. No problems and have never had any.
In Europe you can own/have lots of high-powered RF gear – you only need paperwork if you intend to transmit…
Cheers, Sam.
I’ve often taken radios with me (two handhelds, 2m/70cm band transceiver and an airband transceiver) and security hasn’t even asked to look at them. This is in western Europe and the United States, though.
I did get stopped by the Police (plain clothes) at a railway station in Manchester because the antenna of my Yaesu 2m/70cm transceiver was sticking out of my bag (it’s an aftermarket Nagoya antenna which is too long to fit) and he thought I might be a terrorist…it had been sticking out my bag through the last two airports I had been through and no one in the airport cared!
What do you mean by “deactivated”? Taking out the battery is usually not a good idea, since it is prohibited to carry Li-Ion batteries which are not inside a device in the checked luggage. So your only option would be to put the battery in your hand luggage as well, but then you could just as well put it inside the radio because it will be much safer. I know of a case where an airline passenger had a battery pack from her phone in her handbag which she had just had replaced in some repair shop. It caught fire in flight due to a short circuit, and probably only because of the good reaction of the cabin crew this turned out well.
I just asked myself the same questions when I took my portable radio on a flying vacation in the US. I chose to put it into my checked bag, but with the battery installed.
achimha wrote:
In my experience Greece is about twice as African as Egypt… I’d be careful!
In my experience too…
The radio is staying at home.
I’ve heard you need a license for the radio itself. In Switzerland I think the model needs to be certified and the one I have as a backup was too new when I bought it, so it wasn’t. I never checked if it did get certified later because that’s the last thing I am going to bother about if I have an emergency on board.
