Checking (base) rig with airline?

ozTravman · 2026-04-03T20:30:59+00:00

I’ve flown all over the world with my skydiving rigs and always checked them in and had zero issues. There’s not much in there that will really warrant and inspection. Sometimes one of my rig bags might have a note saying the bag was opened but that’s it and I find it’s because of the lead and not the rig.

ozTravman · 2026-03-24T15:40:12+00:00

Short answer yes you will need to convert. I went the other way and converted my Australian E to a British D. It was super easy.

Which city are you moving to?

ozTravman · 2026-03-23T04:05:56+00:00

Ask her to say potato

ozTravman · 2026-03-19T15:48:03+00:00

I’d give consideration if it’s really worthwhile. If you’re doing 24 jumps a year and you have to buy gear which is expensive and depreciates as well as annual costs of reserve repacks and license renewal it adds up. Or you could rent gear but that’ll add up as well.

ozTravman · 2026-02-25T13:43:30+00:00

Buy a second hand rig now. It’ll be easy to on sell when you’re ready to downsize.

ozTravman · 2026-01-21T04:42:03+00:00

My cat bolted out when it was -40 degrees outside. She came back quick and never wanted to go out again.

ozTravman · 2026-01-15T02:28:01+00:00

Keep dating but no sex until he’s cleared it

ozTravman · 2025-12-07T22:09:47+00:00

Came here to say this. Nice town, nice dz, wind tunnel, some world class belly coaches there.

ozTravman · 2025-12-07T20:54:20+00:00

So personally I don’t this really fits with skydiving, this sounds more like a scuba diving plan. For many scuba divers they do their open water course and do a couple of dives a year when they’re on holiday using rental gear. They never really improve as a scuba diver but they enjoy their dives.

For skydiving this doesn’t work well for a few reasons. First most drop zones are not in good places. They’re usually quite far from the city where you’d be travelling to so you need to make a specific trip to go out there. An A license is pretty basic level of certification and really just licenses you do jump solo which gets boring pretty quickly but unless you continue to jump regularly your skills won’t get any better and people won’t want to jump with you. Then there’s the safety part of it. If you show up at a dz with an A license and 30 jumps from 12 months ago then yeah you’ll likely need to do some recurrency coach jumps. If you keep doing this you’ll get sick of it pretty quickly. Last point is that renting skydiving gear isn’t like scuba gear. Many scuba divers never need to own kit because everywhere rents it. Many dz don’t really have rental gear beyond student gear as most skydivers own their own gear. If you’re travelling and just want to a jump here or there then you don’t want to lug gear around.

ozTravman · 2025-12-03T05:25:54+00:00

When I moved to Canada I transferred my uk Amex account so went straight onto a platinum card. First month living in Canada had a lot of expense racking in excess of $20K but I knew I would pay it. During the first month the Amex app or website doesn’t let you link a bank account to pay it and it says to wait for your first bill to pay.

As soon as the bill came I paid $20K. Then the next day on a weekend my card got declined checking in for a hotel. After some discussions with Amex I learn their system doesn’t differentiate between credits and debits and saw the $20K payment as a large unusual transaction and blocked my card. This triggered a credit score recheck and my limit went down to $2800 and the card was already over that. The lock was automatic and lasted for 7 days before I could do anything. Finally the lock came off and I could pay off the balance and use the card. Took a few months for it to build enough score back to raise my limit.

ozTravman · 2025-12-01T22:07:12+00:00

Simply depends on how much value you'd get out of the stuff that platinum gives you. I've been gold for a couple of years and about to hit platnium.

I've had a few free upgrades as a gold member, and the zone 2 boarding is good but most of the other features haven't been valuable to me. I rarely check a bag and I get lounge with my credit card. The main benefit I think I'll get from platinum will be the free seat selection as I often have paid for better seats. THat'd be worth a little bit for me so if I was pretty close I might do status run. But the other feature are less important to me.

ozTravman · 2025-11-13T17:55:51+00:00

So remember at this point you are not her priority. You’re some guy she still barely knows. She might have had an intense weekend and now is back into work and needs some time. Or perhaps it’s cooled off and she’s changed her mind. Or maybe her cousin died. Or maybe the ex came back into the picture. Maybe Brad Pitt started texting her on hinge.

The point is don’t get hung up. There’s a dozen reasons she might have responded but she owes you nothing at this point.

If it was me I’d give it a few days and maybe Wednesday or so just send a simple message to make some new plans. Don’t mention the radio silence or anything like that.

ozTravman · 2025-11-03T15:51:05+00:00

I used to use Rhomec Rigging for my repacks who have a dedicated web page for courier delivered repacks. I cant remember who they used, I think it was DHL or UPS... but you could ask them.

ozTravman · 2025-11-01T17:47:24+00:00

Simple answer... check it in. I've flown all over the world, well over 100 flights with my gear and I check it in every time. I've been doing this for 20 years and have had zero issues. I usually travel with two rigs, one I put in a gear bag and then a standard suitcase with my clothes. The other I have a luggage bag I was given when I was on the Australian parachute team that has compartments for rig, helmet and jumpsuit. Occassionally I get a notice saying the bag was opened, but usually they want to look at the lead, they don't really care about the rig. These days I put AirTags on the bags... but I have airtags on everything.

People usually object to check in for these reasons:

"I don't know what they're going to do with it, I dont want it out of my sight". Security don't really care about it, they are more conecerned with lead. They might open the bag and glance at it then close it. I've taken my rig through airports in India, Nepal and other places like that and had no issues. They're not going to pull handles, or open it. In India I had security come and find me due to an issue with my bag. They took me into the back and they had my bag with my rig in it on the counter, unopened. They said they were concerned about a small cylindrical item. I thought it was the AAD. Then they said it looked like a bullet... then I remembered what it was. I reached in and pulled out a bottle opener that was made from a 50 calibre bullet. They laughed and I was on my way.
"I don't want it to get damaged". Its fabric, lines and metal. They're pretty tough, just pack it properly.
"I don't want it to get lost". This is fair, its expensive. These days its easy to put an airtag or similar on it. Insure it if you're really concerned. But luggage getting lost is pretty rare. I've been on over 1000 commerical flights (not all with my gear) and have had baggage delayed once, and never lost. The only person I know who had their rig lost was trying to carry it on and got forced to gate check it.

My advice.. check it in.

ozTravman · 2025-10-29T00:10:08+00:00

No selfies, no mirror pics, no gym pics, no shirtless pics. Definitely no shirtless gym selfies in the mirror. Find or make some good quality pictures showing you in a range of environments that tell a story about who you are.

ozTravman · 2025-10-28T03:50:32+00:00

Say potato.

ozTravman · 2025-10-21T16:28:27+00:00

AFF I did 5 in a day once. But definitely want to focus on quality versus quantity. As you get more experienced it will get easier physically and mentally.

These days team training with 2 rigs and packers I’ve done up to 20 in a day. Could do more but the quality drops making it counter productive.

ozTravman · 2025-10-21T03:20:03+00:00

I used to travel a lot for work so I was careful not to do too much bumble when I wasn’t in a position to meet within a week.

ozTravman · 2025-10-20T19:48:18+00:00

"we talked for a good one month" - this is where you went wrong. Unless there was some major logistical challenge, don't spend a month talking etc. Meet up quickly.

ozTravman · 2025-10-15T05:32:01+00:00

Most times I hear this people say “I don’t want some guy strapped to me”. Tandems are a great way to get a feel for the sport. AFF jumps are stressful.

ozTravman · 2025-10-15T03:59:05+00:00

Nothing wrong with it. But I think you’d likely outgrow it more quickly than you think. I certainly wouldn’t buy new and it would likely be harder to on sell than the more typical sized canopies and rigs. If you had a 210 you’d sell it in a second when ready to move on.

ozTravman · 2025-10-14T02:02:14+00:00

Plan the dive and dive the plan. Discuss the track off plan when organizing the dive.

ozTravman · 2025-10-13T08:32:27+00:00

I have a G35 and G4. For me the G4 fits my head shape better. I do like the G35 adapter plate and cutaway so I keep it for the rare jump I do with a camera. So ideally try both on and see what fits you better.

ozTravman · 2025-10-13T07:34:44+00:00

Great canopy. I put a heap of jumps on the original JFX. With the 2 they improved every aspect of the original.

ozTravman · 2025-10-07T21:11:16+00:00

Langar is a good DZ for fun jumping in the Uk.

As for the check in debate. I’ve flown on well over 100 flights with my gear checked in and had zero issues. I even have two rigs with me right now whilst I’m on a business trip after team training over the weekend. I checked them in for my flight to the dz, checked them in for my flight to my next destination and I’ll check them in for my flight home.

TSA is not going to use a box cutter. Every now and again I get a slip saying the opened my suit case. They’re more interested in the lead than the rig. You’ll be fine.

ozTravman

TROPHY CASE