Originally Posted by
Ysitincoach
Here's the thing...if you did as some of them suggest, and put every piece into a different bin, you'd have another screening clerk suggest you could put it all together in one bin. So, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
That's why, with my camera equipment, I remove none of it. They're all permitted items, and I'm about 80/20 with getting through unscathed. It all packs the same exact way. Some days they tell me I have to remove it all, other days I hear nothing and I'm on my way.
And therein lies a great mystery as I get the same. My stuff fits in the Pelican case just one way. Anything out of place and it is instantly noticeable by me. It is always packed the exact same way with everything in the exact same place.
I put the case in the x-ray, and then the comedy begins. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Turn up the intensity. Turn down the intensity. Call others over to look at it. They may or may not call some more. All this time the person in front of me has their stuff stuck in the tunnel waiting for the operator to decide whether to pull my bag or not. On occasion, it miraculously comes flying out of the tunnel with no additional checks needed. Not most of the time.
They take it to the stainless table. I get everything from a quick outside swab and sent on my way to a complete disassemble and rerun in multiple bins or anything in between. I never know. I drives me a bit insane. The inconsistency is incredible.
Then they insist on repacking everything. I watch them with a bemused indifferent look as they try to get it back right. Eventually they ask me if I mind packing it as they can not remember how it came apart.