The security problems of late have had a devistating effect on all who fly airliners as the "security" changes from airport to airport and what is good for one place is not for another.
A year or so back I wrote a CHIRP on this issue high lighting the stress that not knowing what was going to be prohibited at the whim of the security operative.
The people at CHIRP seemed very interested in the situation but the report that I wrote was not published.
Roll on the latest security rules, I now find that the chances of my night stop kit being in the same place as myself are remote unless I spend about 40% of the time that I should be spend on the pre-flight planning chasing the crew bags and making sure that the bags are on the aircraft (in the hold).
My union BALPA knows about this and has been trying to work with the DfT but has been stonewalled each meeting and pilots are now treated as part of the problem with NO conssesions made for aircrew.
Some of the airports (BAA) have made reprisentations to relax the regulations for crew but this has also been rejected.
But it is interesting to note that the Musicians union has got the regulations changed very quickly to let them bring there musical instruments into the cabin, this can only be because of the bad
PR that would have resulted from concerts being canceled because of "airport security".
The bottom line is that most aircrew who have to fly in and out of the UK think that the security mesures are a joke and that they are only in place to protect the civil servants at the DfT.
In by opinion the DfT are only interested in protecting themselfs and there jobs, have no real insight into how the industry works and won't work with BAPLA, the BAA and other industry reprsenatives because it will highlight how little they know about the business that they regulate.
Worst of all the DfT have in the eyes of those in the industry turned security into a bad joke that is a daly irritant to us, Security is a real and important issue that should be adressed by the aviation industry as a whole but insted the DfT seem to be happy with removing toothpase from the pilots and lipgloss from the cabin crew.