Ironbird,

Being a Brit and living in France I fly between the two regular, see some of Martins posts for flights gear and travel are very useful.

To be sure, stash all of you gear in the hold. British security can be and are a pain. If they see you toting a safari type vest packed with " survival" gear count on being escorted out of the line to explain yourself and your equipment and why you feel the need to take it on board. If you happen to miss your flight...oops sorry just doing our job.

You can carry a neck knife, but if a copper see you with it, big no-no, virtualy no knife is legal, even SAK's are frowned upon unless you can convince the copper in question that it's really a multitool to keep in case your bike breaks down or something. Standing next to a bike at the time helps,.. if there's no bike find another story FAST.

More practical in your kit is to prepare for long stays and waits in the airport. Good books, warm clothes, plenty of cash for drinks. All drinks even water purchased outside the airport must consumed or thrown away before passing into departures, count on the prices being high. 50cl of Evian £1.50 ($3). We had to wait over 3 hours for a scheduled flight for Paris and had both our children with us, forunately the wife and I were equipped for such occassions.

Other than that you'll be fine

Any other Brits in the forum want to chip in?

As a UK resident - an SAK is fine as EDC, as is any sub 3" non locking folder. Other blades can be carried with good reason, and discretion and context help a lot - a mora packed in a rucksack while hiking is probably OK, a locking Leatherman in a crowded city pub at 11pm, probably not.

It is a stupid law, but it IS the law and for that reason I find an SAK, with it's ubiquitous red plastic scales and non-threatening appearance is a good choice.

Regarding carry-on - food and water are a good idea, the right clothes help. I'd also suggest the two principal tools for urban survival are a light (e.g. a photon) and a whistle. Gets you found and guides you out. Some OTC meds (painkillers, anti-spasmodic, anti-histamine) are also pretty handy.

Bigreddog,

Quoting from experience, some coppers have told me to leave the SAK at home, your right that context helps. But when you EDC a SAK it's just that, it's with you all the time, even if that happens to be near closing time in the RED LION. Hence an off-duty copper saw me with a SAK opening a bottle in a Pub and gave me the " Just a friendly warning - son" speech meaning; next time I see that it's mine and your nicked.

So the SAK and other tools stay in the car outside the pub and any bottles will just have to be opened by the blond barmaid and no one else ; )

Stokie

Good clothes and shoes, try and stay away from fabrics that MELT. The big things for me? Buy a bottle of water post the checkpoint. I carry my little PSK - you know, my photon, some bandaids, some cash, a set of my prescription drugs, some advil, some imodium etc. Basically, the stuff you go to the medicine cabinet for at home

Don’t try to take anything through airport security you don’t want to lose. Put it into your checked luggage. Then hope that your luggage arrives.

Regulations are well posted but everything depends on the subjective opinion of the security crew. Many do not know or follow the rules. [I would not want their job!]

The odds are that your checked baggage will arrive.

As MDinana states, the odds of needing survival gear in the event of an airliner crash is slim, both from the crash happening and, if it does, being able to use any of your stuff.

Blasts suggestions for airport survival are great and will probably serve you well,

As a suggestion, I wear cotton long sleeve pants and shirts instead of polyester [plastic] clothing for fire prevention. I pay attention to the F/A safety briefing and study the card on every flight so I instinctively know where the exits are.

If I were very paranoid, I would carry a smoke hood . . . but the odds don’t warrant it.

Bottom line, once you onboard, it’s pretty much out of your hands.

A flashlight or two is probably prudent. Ibuprofren, Tylenol, and an antacid/antigas medicine are an imperative on long flights. If your plane should fall down crossing the north Atlantic, I would think that there's really nothing you can reasonably take with you that would mitigate that sort of exposure.

As far as the Brits go, the enforcement of their tote laws is so interpreted that I would not carry any knife unconcealed in public. Maybe out in the countryside, but I just don't trust the bobbies judgement.

Are you thinking of the spyderco uk knife. As you say a knife must be under 3 inches and none locking. So most multitools are technically illegal. But there have been a few cases of arrests being thrown out in court. Though technically the police were right. But technically no one could ever get a kitchen knife home from the supermarket. the police roundly ridiculed for it. You'd be unlucky to be convicted.
simon

Difficult isn't it :-)

I carry very small SAK as EDC on my key ring, and a regular SAK when I'm in jeans. But the law does state specifically that you don't need to justify carrying a folding, sub 3in slipjoint. So I think they would be hard pressed to make any charges stick. Of course, that presumes you can be bothered to go through the process with them, and that they don't go with it as a non-specific 'weapon' (carrying anything specifically as a weapon in illegal)

I'm comfortable carrying a SAK in the UK, the only place I won't is if I know they are doing searches (because it is a hassle - Wembley recently for example). I wouldn't carry the Spyderco very often, because it looks 'tactical' and that might influence coppers differently.

But it is something you need to weigh up for yourself.

I fly a fair amount in the States and routinely carry-on a AMK PSP, Heatsheet and SureFire E2L in my backpack without any problems.

I do not think that they allow 550 cord however and I know from experience that they wouldn't allow a partial roll of gaffers tape on board. ("It could be used to tie someone up.")

International flights might be more restrictive.

Mike

As I respect yours. And, by all means, keep your security blanket! My airport blanket is my backpack, with the afore-mentioned items. Food, water, gum, clothes. Cell phone and flight itinerary too.