So what do you do after you have spent hundreds of dollars on putting together a bug out bag and a pocket survival kit and you want to go on vacation. If you fly, you can't take hardly any of the great stuff you've acquired with you, because it will be confiscated. But you don't want to feel naked at your destination with no psk. What do you do? I thought about going to a gun or sporting goods store and hopefully finding a Ritter PSK to at least have a few basics where I'm at for a few days and then mail the newly purchased PSK back to my home. Checked Luggage is subject to search and theft by nimble-fingered TSA employees, so mailing it back home appears to be the best option. Obviously, with a big investment of survival gear, you don't want to duplicate everything but at least have a minimum at your selected destination. Any other ideas?

With very few exceptions, you should be able to check anything. That should cover you on the ground.

Carry-on emergency gear is probably not needed. Unless you pack a parachute, I can't think of anything that could help an air disaster.

And if the plane DOES crash, emergency crews tend to show up to things like that within 5 minutes. Large passenger jets tend to attract a lot of attention when they make landings in places other than airports. Let the police and paramedics bring their emergency gear.

For personal/edc carry, your idea sounds pretty good to me. I'd probably add an on-site folding knife purchase (maybe a Gerber LST II for around $20) and mail it home later with the PSK.

Still, i think you could pack some some supplementing gear in a shaving-kit sized bag in your checked luggage. Just make it's stuff you can afford to lose in case some TSA guy or gal does grub it up.

I've flown several times with an original Leatherman in my shaving kit in my checked bag, and no one's filched it yet.

I think it was brought up on this forum that sending your gear ahead of you (UPS/FedEx/etc.) worked quite well.

Having come and gone in and out of Baghdad/USA, this is what I can tell you:

I had several knives, nails, med supplies, packaged food, and various other survival goodies packed loose in my checked baggage. If you get luggage that has a TSA approved locking mechanism, only TSA agents will get into your baggage, which means the baggage handlers cannot open it without breaking it, which does not happen. Except for some non-prescription drugs and alchoholic beverages and explosives (and now lighters) and pressurized flammables, you can check just about anything you would need for a survival kit in checked baggage. What you can't check (a lighter, some emergency fuel etc), you can pick up easily enough at your destination (I snagged a disposable lighter and some cotton balls and a tube of vaseline at the duty free before I even left the airport).

Surprisingly, I was able to bring an awful lot of stuff right on the plane with me as carry on, like flashlights, meds, matches, plastic bags, string, duct tape, gorilla glue, toothpicks, you get the idea. All packed away in my little messenger bag, which they did not count as a carry on by the way, which meant I could hold onto my laptop and my day pack that contained an extra set of clothes and other supplies/gear. I was surprised to find out that there are things I can carry on that can't be in my checked baggage.

If you really want to know what you can and can't do, go to the TSA website and find out. Here's the address:

http://tsa.gov/public/display?theme=175

If you really need something you can't take and will likely not find at your destination, then improvise. Ultimately, you can never have enough survival stuff, or you can always make do with what is at hand. Chance favors the prepared mind.

What make/model of messenger bag do you have?

-- Craig

There's always FedEx. Personally I just pack my stuff in my suitcase and check the suitcase in baggage but lots of folks here use fedex. Funny you mention this because I am flying to Vegas for the 4th. I'm taking my usual EDC except substituting an RSK for the new Sebenza. Don't trust the airlines w/ my Sebenza and the RSK is a superb knife that I often EDC anyway. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm not comfortable checking anything valuable anymore since TSA can cut your locks off to inspect your luggage or worse, open those tsa approved locks with their own keys and rummage to their hearts content. I just received my RSK today and I don't think I would risk that one either. Just my opinion.

Well on Tuesday I will post and let know if my RSK makes it to Vegas and back. Its garanteed that the TSA will search my bag. They always do. I don't even lock them.

great! because I'm goin to Vegas in August

I just put all the sharps and the other dangerous stuff in a checked bag. Haven't lost anything yet, not even collector grade knives I've bought on the road, or in a couple of intnernational flights (one with lost luggage coming back from Italy).

One time, I forgot about the Ultimate Survival Strike Force flint/steel in my briefcase, and got the full treatment (next best thing to a strip search). They let me go, and let me keep it. That was before the lighter ban, though. Of course, I probably got off because I developed a rapport with the hand screener, due to the Wichard sailing hardware on my keychain ("Hey, are you a sailor?"), so I wouldn't recommend you try this.

Oh yes, BTW, I never put locks on my checked bags. If thieves want in, TSA locks aren't going to stop them, and if the TSA guys want my stuff, obviously TSA locks won't stop them, either.

It is an Everest bag. I don't know about model, but you can find several different versions at everest.com website. Typically they hold about as much as a standard purse. No one gives me a hard time about wearing it. Then again I am 6'6 and weigh 265 lbs.

As a general rule, most TSA agents have enough integrity and scrutiny that they won't steal anything from luggage. They are watched pretty closely by people who can't really afford to lose their job, and there are better procedures in place to file a claim against the agency if your luggage has an approved TSA lock on it, you have a bill of lading (packing slip, inventory of contents), even just pictures of what was in there before the trip. When they find out that only TSA agents were allowed into the luggage, the excrement will hit the fan at the office. It'd be like someone opening your fed ex package at the processing terminal. It just doesn't happen often enough to worry about.

If you check baggage, use luggage with approved TSA locks. If I can make it in and out of Baghdad to Seattle and all points in between without losing my knives, lighters, cameras, money, etc. then it should be good enough for just about anything else you might pack.

Yes, theives will always find a way to steal, no matter what you do. I find the TSA lock on my new Samsonite luggage to be very difficult to defeat short of damaging the container itself. Now if some luggage Gorilla manages to get his hands on a TSA key, well, even banks still get robbed these days don't they? Ultimately, there is no truly secure way to ship what you think you need anywhere, so you must accept that certain conditions are simply inevitable, and take your chances like everyone else. I've had more than my share of things lost, stolen or damaged by the USPS, UPS, Fed Ex, and DHL enough to understand that they are no better.

Let me ask you this, what other choice do you have, and isn't some form of protection/security better than none at all?

I'm 5'11'' and 130 pounds. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> As you can plainly see, we're roughly equivalent. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Then again, no one sees a thin nerdy geek as a threat, so people generally leave me alone. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

-- Craig