I once needed to take a battery powered drill with me. I took the
batteries out and put them in my brief case. When the security agent
looked at my drill case, I told him, "I want you to know that I am
taking a drill with me, but the batteries are not in the case, so the
drill in inoperative." They let me through.

was this after 9/11 or before? Back in early 2000, I brought a rotary
hammer (NOT cordless) with me from the bay area to MCO. No problem
going there. Coming home they made me check it even though I couldn't
possibly plug it in on the plane. It is typical now that security makes
up policies on the fly. I realize they can't cover everything but there
should be some consistancy.


Around november 2001, just after 9/11, I flew from SFO to LAS. Going
through security the woman said I had a pair of pliers. myself and
the guard looked and couldn't find anything. Scan the bag again,
look, can't find anything. Scan it again, look some more and the
guard found a 5.5 millimeter wrench that was about 6cm long. Security
wasn't sure if I can bring it on board so they handed it to a National
Guardsman holding an m16 who said "I don't think this paper clip sized
wrench can do much harm." All of us laughed. I'm actually
glad they found it as I needed it and made the job in LA much easier. grin

Gerald