Good job INS / GPS was invented, or how would navigators have managed if their dividers had been confiscated ?
I only thought of this the other day, opening my briefcase a student asked what that was ? "that" was a pair of traditional looking dividers pushed down the side of the case that held my E6B computer and Dalton protractor, and another pilot remarked that I'd better not take them through security - anywhere.
I truly hadn't considered that, having last carried them pre-9/11, but had I forgotten and taken them recently for any reason, I'd now be in Gauntanamo Bay in an orange jump suit, if not on death row somewhere.
My dividers have been part of my Nav. kit ever since I started flying, and were originally bought for my father by my grandmother, when he started work as an engineering apprentice just after the First World War.
They are 6 1/4" long with very sharp points, and they have been around the World with me many times over a 40 yr professional flying career - including time as a Flight Navigator - and I would truly kill for them if some TSA idiot tried to take them off me.
Don't care, World's Gone Mad.
Some time ago, boarding in Honolulu for LAX, I truly forgot that I still had my Swiss Army knife in my carry-on bag. The TSA agent suggested that I go back through the entry to the 'secure' area and ask the airline ticket agent to post them to my home. The agent produced a very large box, ( previously used for a dozen boxes of Kellogs cornflakes if I recall ) placed my knife in it, taped it up, added a LAX cargo label to it, put it on the conveyor and wished me a pleasant trip.
On arrival LAX my box was one of the first items to arrive on the baggage conveyor belt, I opened it, removed my knife, and let the box carry on its merry way.
Won one.
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 26th Mar 2013 at 08:48.