Help: flying with a fiddle

Subject: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Marion
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 11:55 AM

Hello all. I have a trip planned on a discount airline (Canjet). My fiddle is longer than their carry-on limits, so they say I won't be able to keep it with me (I am pressing them for an exception, since it's so fragile and valuable and since other airlines have let me carry it on, but it doesn't look optimistic).

They won't guarantee the fiddle's safety if I check it. They have offered to give it special treatment, like loading it last and taking it off first and delivering it to me at the gate, but I'm still scared by this. I asked if it would be in a hospitable environment like how dogs and cats are carried (at least I hope they get a hospitable environment - no way I'd ever take my cat on a flight), but they said no - it would be in a nonheated, nonpressurized place with the rest of the luggage.

So my basic question is this - suppose I decide to trust them not to drop my fiddle or put some other bag on top of it. Will spending hours in a cold, very low pressure compartment in itself damage my fiddle? I have no idea what the humidity would be like. I can pack it carefully against damage from rough handling, but is there any way of packing it that will help protect it from the airplane environment?

It's no Stradivarius, but it would be terrible for anything to happen to it... but I need it. I've got to go play Maple Sugar with Willie-o.

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 12:48 PM

Marion, we have run several threads on travelling with instruments and guitars in particular. The feelings are mixed as are the experiences, as you would expect. Baggage handling equipment is NOT instrument friendly. Bert has had a lot of experience with that equipment and as I recall, his advice was to pack the instrument, in this case your fiddle in its tight fitting case--make it so if it isn't-- and then pack it into a shipping box as securely as possible.

NOW---Take the box and throw it out of an upstairs window. If you are afraid to do this.....DON'T TAKE IT WITH YOU!!!

Some have had success (me for one) with a guitar in a gigbag hanging in the Carry-On suiter closet, but a lot of planes no longer have them. On the other hand I have also simply thrown the case and all (strapped and locked) onto the baggae cart and I guess I've been lucky. My one case does have a NASTY gouge in it that it got on a plane in bagge though.

I would definitely loosen the strings and be absolutely sure the fit inside the case was good. Wrap it in a small towel if you like too. Allow it to warm up naturally before retuning and you should be OK on that front (cold).

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:15 PM

Just cart it onto the plane with you, and sound like trouble if you are challenged in the doorway. I do that with a 120 bass accordion, plead that I am a musician, and am never parted from my instrument. I just look suitably crazed, and, so far, I haven't had to get stroppy. There seems not to be any communication between plane and booking in desk, so just do it. They can't get access to the hold by that stage, and it's basically a problem they have to solve by finding a space somewhere in the passenger bit of the plane.

It's also worth trying the "They said it was alright at the booking in desk" line.

Good luck

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:24 PM

Marion, I personally think they're jerking you around. I've never been made to check a fiddle. They fit in the overhead bins just fine, and fit under the seat if you can borrow part of the under-seat area of the one next to you. Most of a fiddle will fit under one seat. If they're telling you it won't fit, I'd ask what the dimensions of the overhead bins are.

I'd try almost anything before I let them stow it in the baggage hold - duct tape it to my back, take the fiddle out of the case and stick it in a shopping bag or very large purse, (it's my opinion that the fiddle will be safer without a case and in your hands than in the baggage hold) then let them stow the case, point out people carry gym bags, backpacks and various crates. Someone ought to design a fiddle case that looks like a large handbag or backpack for this sort of thing.

Now, very important: Loosen the strings!!! I also put something like a sock in between the strings and the violin body just in case.

If you don't, you'll end up with broken strings, a broken bridge, a snapped neck, or any combination. This is due to the pressure and humidity (possibly) changes. I had it happen once - the strings which hadn't snapped were far tighter than I'd tuned them.

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Melani
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:27 PM

If it's the size of the average fiddle, it's probably not actually too big to fit in one of the standard places for carry-on luggage. Skipjack's advice sounds good. I knew a musician during the Vietnam era who managed to avoid being drafted by refusing to part with his guitar--after stripping for the physical.

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Grab
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:29 PM

I've heard folks talk about humidity-sealed cases, but I don't think that'll help on a plane. See, the problem is the pressure - if your case is sealed and the air pressure goes down (as it does at 30k feet), the case would either have to vent some of its air out or explode! And once it's vented, you've got low pressure inside the case anyway.

Just in case, let the strings off so it's not under tension - the cold will cause the strings to contract slightly which may not be good for the neck.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: bill\sables
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:44 PM

I have always carried a Tenor banjo in a hard case onto the plane and stored it in the overhead bin with no problem. I always try to be among the first boarders so as I can get a empty bin. I only once had trouble and that was with Air France but after I advised them on handy hints on how to run an airline they let me carry it on. but as you probably know Air France and the British costomer do not always see eye to eye Cheers Bill

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:48 PM

A well planned tantrum can sometimes do wonders, and is unfortunately the only thing some anal-retentive types pay attention to. Just don't get kicked off the plane!

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: GUEST,Sailor Dan at work
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:05 PM

I have traveled with a Banjo in a hard case. I had no problem storing it case and all in an overhead bin of a B727 and B757. I did take up any space in case with a small hand towel and covered the top with another towel. The strings were well loosened, the cold of flight will make them contract severely. This will provide severe tension to the neck. AS far as the body is concerned it will get cold soaked, just let it warm up by itself naturally. If your worried about humidity or lack of, you could cut up an apple and bury the pieces in the case, It would provide some moisture for the flight.

I dont think your fiddle in its case would be as big a a banjo, I dont see why they would turn you down at the door of the aircraft. Take it with you.

Sailor DAn

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Turtle
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:28 PM

Marion,

Would it make any sense at all to see if you can borrow a fiddle where you're going? I know it wouldn't be *your* fiddle, but I've a friend who plays stand-up bass who deals with this all the time, and that's often what she does. I'm with just about everyone else on the thread: complain, yell, scream, show up at the door with the fiddle, pitch a fit, but don't let them put it underneath the airplane! I once got an animal back at the end of the flight in an upside-down cage. Made me shudder to think what had happened in between me delivering him to the baggage folks safe in his kennel, and finding him at the other end upside down. If that could happen to a pet, when they know they're dealing with a living thing, what could happen to an inanimate object?

I have to travel all the time for work, and I always take my fiddle with me so I can practice (with a mute) in the hotel room. I have always been able to carry the fiddle on board--I've never asked ahead of time, always just took it as one of my two carry-on pieces, and I've never been challenged. It's clearly smaller than many of those wheeled pieces of carry-on luggage.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

Turtle

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 03:57 PM

Marion, Hardiman convered this in another thread, I think, but what he did was carry the violin in its very professional-looking case to the door of the plane, and THEN ask the flight attendant if she preferred to handle his very expensive, fragile antique violin herself or if she preferred he stow it overhead. She was only too eager to duck responsibility by assuring him she would be perfectly happy for him to stow it overhead personally!

Not the same thing they are allowed to tell you when you do the responsible thing and call ahead to ask the ticket agent, see? At all.

Maybe this worked better because he is a man, tho it should not have mattered. But securing a male ally (I am assuming you are a female Marion), just in case, might not hurt. Just to make it easier on the flight attendant to smile that pretty, yielding smile and say, "OK!"

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From:
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 02:19 AM

Remember Marion that at the altitudes you will fly, it is very DRY. Besides breakage and theft, I would also fear the neck warping or the belly splitting. It might be adequate to use a dampit. Perhaps someone else knows.

All I can say about the discount airline is, "cheap is cheap." Most airlines will at least allow you to put it in a cupboard in the passenger compartment if they don't allow you to put it overhead.

Murray

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Marion
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 09:13 PM

Good news - the airline is sending me written confirmation that I can put my fiddle in some kind of cupboard in the fiddle-friendly part of the plane. Given what I've learned here about how standard it is to carry a fiddle on, I think the station manager was a little melodramatic about what a big exception they were making for me. But Canjet is a quite new airline - he claimed that this was the "first time they had dealt with something like this", and who knows, maybe it really was.

Thanks for your answers everybody. The idea of checking the case and carrying the fiddle on in a little bag is interesting. The idea of just trying to carry it on, then doing some drama at the gate if you're challenged, troubles me a little, because you don't know if you're going to end up in your best case scenario (keeping it with you) or your worst case scenario (instrument being cast to the demons) until it's too late to turn back and take another airline or go without.

Turtle, your poor dog! That really makes me angry. Did the airline offer any explanation, or acknowledgement that something was terribly wrong? Did your dog seem traumatized by the trip?

Murray, are you the Murray from the probability threads? If so, I'm glad to see you signed in. You agreed with me, so you must be a very valuable addition to the Mudcat.

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: The Shambles
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 01:30 PM

Well, before you start flapping too hard, I would suggest that you place another fiddle under the other arm.......Good luck.

Sorry about that, It was too good to miss, but I did at least wait until there were many good and sensible answers to your question.

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: Turtle
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 05:07 PM

Hooray for the good news! And smart you to get written confirmation . . .

Thanks for your concern for my pet, Marion (a cat, actually). He was a pretty mellow animal, and had had a tranquilizer, and didn't show any after-effects, much to my astonishment. Probably dismissed it all as a bad dream.

No, there was no acknowledgement on the part of the airline that anything odd had happened. I just found him in the baggage area in an upside-down kennel, and of course the people in the baggage office knew nothing about why he was upside down. It happened a long time ago on Republic Airlines (of Tom Paxton's "Thank You, Republic Airlines, For Breaking the Neck on My Guitar" fame), and I've never had another similar experience, but I have to admit it's made me very wary about sending animals or other fragile precious things in baggage.

Anyway, with this hurdle hurdled, have a wonderful trip and enjoy playing your fiddle!

Turtle

Subject: RE: Help: flying with a fiddle
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 05:14 PM

Let us know how it goes, huh?