It works great though if you happen to look like Wilbur and Orville Wright
The funny thing is that some people really think that picture is the cardholder (with and without the moustache, presumably)! Not kidding…
Some years ago, here in the UK, there was a trial of photos on credit cards, to reduce fraud. One newspaper did a test of the effectiveness of this proposal by making a CC with a picture of a gorilla on it, and found that a lot of shops accepted it. Of course, what they didn’t tell you was what the person presenting it looked like 
I’d call that one a serious safety issue.
Yes, very much so. And I have seen that too here in the UK, at Norwich. They confiscated my toothpaste, so would have done the same to a drink. That was years ago however and they got a lot of bad press for that and similar behaviour so I am sure it’s changed. I went there a few months ago and it was a completely different setup, going via the Saxonair mandatory handling, very smooth and with no issues whatever.
What are the rules for bringing items to your aircraft which are not allowed as hand luggage on a commercial flight?
Items I can think of that could cause trouble:
- a filled O2 cylinder
- a camping stove
- a knife
- a bottle with drinks / alcohol
- a drill
- a life raft
Permitted, if the pilot declares these goods. The problem, as Achim said, is more that personell often doesn’t know, because they usually only deal with CAT, where other rules apply. Only guns etc. require special permits.
This is for Germany; slightly different rules may apply elsewhere.
Where and how do you have to declare the items? Is there a special form for it? ;)
No, you merely declare it to the security staff at the airport.
Given the fact that security personel dont know what GA is ,and will treat the pilot as a commercial passenger, I can recall 2 frustrating instances of my GA career:
1/Sir ,you cannot take your waterbottle with you.///Reply: Will you be responsible if I die of dehydration up there ?
2/Security to Policeman:..This is a Private Pilot,let him pass////Reply: …and where is his uniform ?
Through my local knowledge,many from the security personel are school drop-outs or suffer from the Rambo syndrome.
The problem is that differentiating the security screening of crew and passengers may be defeated by those two populations being in contact after the screening.
If a crew member is allowed through screening with objects you would not want a passenger to possess on board, the objects have effectively been admitted on the other side and may end up in possession of a passenger unless you keep the two populations apart after screening.
In France I have been really positively surprised that me and my passengers were allowed through security carrying cases of wine while liquids were confiscated from RyanAir and EZ passengers. And on top of that we were allowed to bypass the line. But after the security checkpoint, we were escorted airside by a security officer. And this was at airports like Perpignan, Bergerac, (and Limoges IIRC) so admittedly not “major” airports.
Aviathor wrote:
The problem is that differentiating the security screening of crew and passengers may be defeated by those two populations being in contact after the screening.
What I’ve never understood is why GA crew and pax have to pass through the airside part of the terminal at all. It they were taken from landside straight to a minibus which took them to the aircraft, no security checks would be necessary because they would never mix with CAT pax.
I also don’t understand why you would have security checks at dedicated GA terminals.
I seems like the practice varies from one airport to another. At Köln for example, there is no security screening at all. You are driven directly from the GAT to your airplane. In Malmø, there is an X-Ray machine dedicated to all personnel that go airside, including GA flight crews and passengers. But then they drive you the 150 m to the plane. At all the Norwegian airports I went through in August/September I went through the fire station directly airside with no screening.
I cannot remember having been subject to any security screening at US airports, whether San Diego Lindbergh, Las Vegas McCarran (FBOs) although that was after 9/11 – but may have changed now.
I have been to countless airports where both GA and commercial flights exist and there are obvious security weaknesses.
Obviously I am not going to post details but for example it’s trivial to get stuff passed on or off airside, especially after dark. You probably can’t do this at Gatwick (there is a proper fence with H24 patrolling there, in theory) but most of the smaller places, especially in the more southern parts of Europe, don’t have that and everybody knows that.
The airport staff are obviously aware of this so they try to isolate the passengers getting onto the “airliner”, with lots of staff standing around, to make sure they can’t mix with anybody else between passing through the xray etc and disappearing inside their plane.
Done that way, it doesn’t matter much that the airport is basically insecure all the rest of the time. There is no need to harrass GA on top of that, but many still do it.
