Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who flew the friendly skies before metal detectors in terminals??

For a change of pace, my first flight after 9-11, maybe a year after, a guy carried on a bull's skull, complete with maybe 24" horns per side, and stuffed it in the overhead. Not sure what loophole he invoked for that one.

I flew extensively (multi-million miles) from 1985 - 2015 when I retired and a fair bit on vacations, fishing and hunting trips, the majority of my miles being international. In a couple of weeks we are heading to Italy for ten days or so. A good seat makes a world of difference. I never flew when smoking was allowed but do remember folks smoking in their office at work.

Back in 72 or 73 I flew out of Lubbock TX with a small backpack with tools and a seisometer in it. I walked thru the metal detector and there wasn't even a peep out of it. I remember flying out to Adak on Reeves when the smoking section was on the right side of the aircraft while the non smoking was just across the aisle on the left side.
I remember flying Western Airlines which served cheep wine free of charge. A grammer school and high school classmate of mine was Cody Berden. He and his father hijacked a jet and wanted to fly to Cuba. They landed in El Paso to refuel and the authorities shot out the planes tires when it tried to taxi to take off. His dad got life and Cody was out after a few years.

A pard and myself used to fly to Kodiak every November to deer hunt with friends who lived down there. I’d always book tickets and he always was adamant we fly Raven instead of AK air. No metal detector or butthole search for “local” flights on turboprops at that time.

Once we were running behind getting back to city of Kodiak to catch the plane back to ANC. Got off the Islander at Island Air and hustled across the parking lot to the airport where the lady quickly threw our bags down the conveyor and told us to hustle out and get on the plane. Halfway through the flight I noticed he had a 4” S&W 41 Mag on his belt. He just pulled his coat down and acted like everything was good to go. Got to ANC, got our bags, and went home. This was about 2013 or so.

Know a lady who was flying from ABQ to DEN a few years back. Went through all the security stuff and boarded. In the air gets into her purse to get some gum and discovers she still has her loaded S&W 442. Guess they don’t always have the metal detector turned on.

Up to 9/11 I always carried a pocket knife. I remember flying back from Africa in the 90s with a Maasai spear as a carry on.

It’s all BS. I carried, but not much flying anymore, a flick open pocket knife wherever I went. A 3” blade should be somewhat effective at an arms length. 9/11 made such behavior difficult. I had a national meeting to attend in Orange, Connecticut the week of and after 09/11. Got scrapped. First available transport there was rescheduled and away I went. Went through carry on baggage and what ever else was on the agenda for that day for the flight TO BOSTON. After getting on board I attempted to occupy my assigned seat only to have something around my belt area snag. Turned out to be my cell phone and holster. Y’all most likely remember the size of such an apparatus in that time frame. Nobody would be wiser.

Bring back profiling.

My first flight unaccompanied was in 1964. The first time I recall getting questioned at all was prior to boarding a Lufthansa flight in 1970. Luggage was never bothered. Air travel was just transportation. GD

First airline flight was in 1972 - so yes.

Once got pulled to the side and searched over a forgotten half can of bean dip in the bottom of my carry-on backpack.

Dude rolled his eyes when he dug it out, saying GTFOH.

Last weekend took a quick run to SEA and hastily packed a small carry-on with meds, kit, etc. never thinking about what might be in the side pocket.

The TSA robots at security check took my all time favorite folding knife which was hiding there after a recent road trip. Dumb mistake on my part.

I once flew to Dallas to work the DSC show, stayed a week after the show with my folks back home and then back to Anchorage through OKC.

When I got home to Anchorage I unpacked my carryon and discovered a full box of 12ga 2 3/4” magnum steel shot I’d forgot in there from a fly out duck hunt back in October. Made it through security both ways.

Flew a bit in 70’s on Piedmont Airlines turboprops. Cheap. My first jet flight was in 1969, Daytona to Atlanta for $19.00.

Flew Southwest from Dallas to Lubbock a fair number of times in the mid 70’s downing drinks served by some fine looking ladies. It was a great airline in those days.

I have never flown very much and even less ATtER the detectors/TSA, but after my spring and August of this year IF I ever fly again I aught to really set it off!

Flew to Hawaii from Oregon in '78

Brought a brick of fire crackers back in my luggage.

That'll never happen again!

I flew Texas International back when they had free beer and drop dead gorgeous stewardesses.

Flew for the first time in 1958 on PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) from San Francisco to San Diego. At the time, I believe PSA was running DC-4s on that route. Nevertheless, a couple of guys got on board with rifles in soft cases and they placed them in the overhead bins that in that era didn’t even have doors.

This is the exact knife (a Gerber lockblade) that I always took with me on flights from the early 1980s till 9/11, after which they prohibited it. It's got a 2.5" blade. Still have it with me everyday. After over 40 years of daily carry, and frequent daily use, it's still holding strong, still takes a razor edge, and holds it great.

This picture was meant to illustrate how big this moth was:

It wasn't a tool of over 7 inches....Had my barrel channel scraper taken away from me, flying Anchorage to Kotzebue. Yeah, that was dangerous! F'k heads.

I always flew that route with 2-4 big blocks of cheese in my carry-on briefcase because of weight- and often my coat pockets stuffed with other heavy food items (and 148- 150 lbs of groceries in 3 coolers (limit of free baggage).

The cheese was always inspected.

I mean, com'on, man - who flies with that much C4?