We had the Heimann model and that "feature" made a lot of people think we were idiots who didn't know which button to push.

Regarding the laptops, up here when I was working we had all electronics removed (still appears to be policy as I just flew last week). When I first started, however, we didn't remove any electronics and I often had difficulty seeing through bags with laptops. I felt more comfortable once they were required to be removed.

This has been a major point of consternation for me. Specifically, I do not want my precious G4 rolling down the rails (bump, bump, bump) to come to rest at the bottom and then get hammered again by the oversized rollaboard behind it.

I always insist of grabbing it directly from the roller. This has caused problems when I am selected for secondary and not allowed to touch my stuff!

[QUOTE=screenerx]The Rapiscan series does have a steel table right before the belt to stop this. It's really nice, in that it won't let a item be pushed off when the machine goes in reverse like it does.QUOTE]

The Smith Heimann has a steel roller table also but it is only a few feet long. Once the bags are stacked up it is useless to save the last bag.

There use to be a "bin loader" position but since the staffing levels are low it has been eliminated in most airports.

Padded Laptop Bins Exist... uh, Somewhere...
 

:confused: I know I've been traveling too much when it occurs to me that I was at some airport recently where the laptop bins were foam rubber padded (take your pick between ORD, SEA, CVG, DTW, MSP, DFW, AUS, MCI). The only thing that I wondered about there was the likelihood of that material building up a static charge (I wonder about those plastic bins, as well).

As for pulling out all the electronic gear... oh man! SFO was doing that initially and it was a pain. I carry a laptop, a digital camera, a Blackberry, a Nextel phone and a variety of wires, spare batteries, and chargers for all that gear. You all don't want me in front of you if I have to unload all of that, plus my belt and shoes.

Interestingly, I can't think of the last time my laptop got swabbed or my laptop bag got hand searched.

I would suggest taking out electronic equipment thats bigger than the size of palm pilot ie: xbox, ps2,printers and especially those damn projectors there worse than a laptop to see through.

They have to be paying attention. We can tell.

I can't go into how.