Flying with C4 Mustangs

[BennyB]

Hi all,

I've recently got a pair of C4 Mustangs and need to fly with them this Friday. Normally with my old plastic fins I throw them in the bag and let the baggage handlers do their worst, you can't kill my old plastics. But carbon fins..... i'm a little nervous.

Has anyone got any experience with packing a set of carbon fins nice and secure in hold luggage? I believe that carry-on will not be an option as they're a little big for overhead.

Added to this I have a long Cressi bag for the fins, but I won't be filling it up as it's too big, i'll have a couple of clothing items, wetsuit, weights & masks. I'm a bit worried that things will get thrown around (especially weights) which might bugger up my fins too.

Any advice?

Cheers,
Ben

 

[spaghetti]

This maybe the ultimate solution, very compact case made purposedly for longfin blades:. : GISMONDI CUSTODIE : .

BTW. IS it the newer 2008 Mustang Vgr made of T700 fiber?
The owner of C4 says he has not received even a single warranty claim for broken T700 blades so far, and that's after almost 2 years they've been on the market. But I understand that it's like asking the brewer if his beer is good.

 

[alexrom1207]

I flew to Key West with a pair of cressi garas as carry-ons. I just put them flat against each other and taped them together. They fit int he overhead compartments just fine and no one gave me any trouble. I also took a tiny little 9 seater and an 18 seater during the trip, during both flights (which had no overhead compartments) they just kept the fins up front.

But I guess you do risk that they could say they have to check them....so I'm not sure what you think. But generally, if you're really nice to the flight attendants (who are generally treated like crap) they will be really nice in return and probably just place your fins up front in a cabinet during the flight.

Oh and if you do this, prepare for lots and lots of comments from people who have no idea why fins are made that long (including teh flight attendants who may help you out just out of the curriousity over what this weird thing called "freediving" is).

 

[Claudio]

Hi BennyB,

I also have a pair of Mustangs and have traveled with them both to overseas and to Miami on a plane without a problem. In all instances I checked them in with my dive bag.

Rather than trying to carry it on and running the risk of being forced to check it in at the plane and without proper protection, I packed mine really well on my dive bag or fin bag.

What you have to do is to protect their sides and botton. So wrapping both pieces of your wetsuit around your blades helps. I also wrap dive towels around the wetsuit for extra padding just in case. No problems so far. Just one caveat: I never travel with my weights... I pack my belt but rent the weights at my final destination. If you are taking yours, I would definitely recommend putting them on a different bag than your blades.

Spaguetti, thanks for the hard-case suggestion. That case is the best solution I've seen so far and would allow one to either check the fins in or try to carry on the plane with no problems. If they turn you down at the plane, the blades are ready to be checked in. I thought of getting something like that but did not find a case in the proper dimensions.

Cheers,
Claudio

 

[azapa]

i hand carried mine when they were new and lovely but now throw them in the hold in my divebag.. no probs so far

 

[spaghetti]

i hand carried mine when they were new and lovely but now throw them in the hold in my divebag.. no probs so far

I'm with you, Simon. It's so manly to treat expensive gear in such a heavy handed manner...:martial

(...but now that I think of it, I do not own any expensive items at the moment. Everytime I've bought any new top of the range super expensive dive gear items, they went lost, stolen or broken right before I could say F#]KKK D@MMM THE M@therF°cKKING §HìTT!) :blackeye
well, that's my bare and crude facts.

 

[jdward1]

I recently took my 81vgr fins from Oregon to Ft Lauderdale for the pfi course. I detached the footpockets( put in my check in luggage) and carried the blades as my 2nd piece of luggage. Had alot of " what on earth is that?" questions .but they survived the overhead storage...although my heart stopped a few times when I saw other people throwing there carry ons against them,
On the return flight the stewardess let me store them in the uniform cupboard .. im sure not all stewardess's or stewards will be thant kind though....good luck

 

[azapa]

I'm with you, Simon. It's so manly to treat expensive gear in such a heavy handed manner...:martial

(...but now that I think of it, I do not own any expensive items at the moment. Everytime I've bought any new top of the range super expensive dive gear items, they went lost, stolen or broken right before I could say F#]KKK D@MMM THE M@therF°cKKING §HìTT!) :blackeye
well, that's my bare and crude facts.

if you think tossing fancy fins around is manly, then ripping brand new wetsuits on the first day out must me positively Herculean?

Cressi LC on first day (don't buy em, really are a POS..)

 

[spaghetti]

My heart is bleeding for you, Buddy

If it comforts you, I've had similar experience with smoothskin suits (twice). Not to mention the C4 Falcon that fell unnoticed from the scooter as I was heading to the beach, the brand new Omer Rekord and brand new XXV Gold stolen from my bag while I was snorkelling, the Marco Bardi signature speargun that literally fell apart from galvanic corrosion, down to lesser misfortunes like the brand new 35 Euros worth Devoto shaft that broke the monoline and went lost on the very first shot, et cetera et cetera et cetera.
I mostly buy used items now (except for wetsuit trousers: I won't wear trousers someone else has pee'd in...:yack)

 

[BennyB]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I fly tonight and, as per usual left packing to 1am last night :duh. I ended up finding some thick cardboard under the house and some bubble wrap from some furniture purchasing a couple of months ago, so I put a little bubblewrap in between the blades and folded the cardboard over the top and an extra layer over the end of the fin. Then I taped it up all nice and tight so hopefully it should be ok. I've travelled all around the world with my monofin and it's survived so with a bit of luck i've got this wrapping caper down.

Val they are the T400's so that makes me feel a bit better too.

If i'm not on DB for a few days after this weekend you'll know that i'm in mourning!

Cheerio,
Ben

 

[DivingDane]

muppet....T700's not T400's, these queenslanders ya gotta wonder some times

DD

 

[BennyB]

My mistake.... It's the one that's made of liquid metal that can stab you, not the big one that says "I'll be back" :duh

 

[spaghetti]

My mistake.... It's the one that's made of liquid metal that can stab you, not the big one that says "I'll be back" :duh

Amazing creatures they are, I tell ya. One of those T700 VGR (liquid metal type) tried to screw my wife the other day! :rcard
....Of course she said no! :chatup