I have to do some RTK work about 1400 miles from home. It is only about three days of work. Thought about subbing it out but I have to be there to do some other things as well. Will the airlines let you bring a complete base/rover setup on a flight or would it be better to Fed-Ex it to myself there? Was thinking I would much rather fly and rent a car vs driving 6 days for 3 days of work. I have never transported my gear anyway except in my pickup.
I do it all the time. Buy a soft golf bag carrier, and put the tripods in there. You can also put GPS receivers in there as long as you can keep the weight under 50 lbs. Or, the receivers can be in their hard case, or even in your suitcase. Probably have to pay for baggage unless you fly southwest
Used to fly from Tampa to California for surveying work, sometimes Texas. Loaded gear in duffle bag, instruments in hard cases. When we got to the job site we would go to the closest hardware or box store and buy a shovel. We always left the shovel behind. A lot of orphaned shovels out there...
ship it.
airports and airplanes and TSA are a royal pain
I always like sending the equipment by bus and picking it up at the bus station, go do job and then take it back and ship it back home.
Get "Inland Marine with listed/named equipment floater" (where you declare devices and SN's) insurance in case the equipment is stolen while in transit. Make sure your deductible is less than $500. Take pictures of everything.
You can not transport batteries in devices or cases anymore, so you need to hand carry those in carry on luggage.
If you choose to ship equipment, make sure it is either insured or that your insurance will cover it.
Golf club bags work great for poles.
🙂
M
level rods are PITA, United is charging $200/piece!!
Carry the GPS on with you, it'll be no problem, just pad them heavily.
Find a local dealer and rent tripods when you get to where you're going. Rent will be cheaper than shipping or checking as luggage, around $15 a day.
Do not ship gear unless you want to risk your gear being lost in the mail and your standing around twiddling your thumbs. Been there, very frustrating.
I used to use air freight a lot, Fed Ex is expensive. For what Fed Ex would cost, you could probably rent ALL of the equipment for a three day job. The issue with that is how far away from the job site is the nearest good equipment rental place? I would never want to screw around with trying to check all of that, but that's just me.
It's been several years since I have used it but I still have a wooden box with wheels on one end, a rope handle on the other, and a lock. I put my clothes in the wooden box for padding. My instrument case was the right size for carry-on. I only made one trip after 9-11 and it was different. No points in carry-on including plumb-bobs. The baggage checker wanted to check the carry-on case, took my total station out and started to lay it down lens first. I come unglued. They let me box it back up.
James
Last time we sent our crews for an out-of-state survey we rented local to the job site. Since we had a week's advance planning time, we were able to call and verify the equipment rental, rate, and pickup/drop-off ahead of time. It saved us a lot of headaches.
Just a thought. What if you ordered a set of legs, and poles, or whatever, and had them shipped to another surveyor. (The big, and hard to ship items) Then, CARRIED your instrument only, and laptop on the plane. And, then, had dinner with the other surveyor, did your job, and LEFT the legs and pole with the other surveyor, as a tip, and you'd find that possibly a new friend, and since you were in his area, that he works, and such, he *MIGHT* have some useful information, or data, or such.
This is known as a "Symbiotic Relationship" in nature.
Just a thought.
Nate
I used to travel a lot, average of one week a year for maybe 10 years. Airports and checking baggage was a pain. We evolved...
We always knew where we were going to stay. We overnight shipped All of our gear to the Motel at the end of the day before we left. One hour task.
(nope, not shovels, picks, paint... less than $50 and 30 minutes in a hardware store and all is good)
We went to the airport with Only carry on luggage... toiletries, a change of clothing, and field books. Everything else got shipped.
When we landed we got in our rental car and went on to the motel. If it was early we stopped at a hardware store or the job site to do a bit of orientation and recon.
Our normal Insurance would cover any loss... but never made a claim. It was always waiting for in the Motel.
Zero dark dark thirty the next morning we hit the ground running.
Project engineers were happy with the cost and time efficient method.
There are some hand tools and paint behind bushes in a few locations if I ever get back there.