watch out with your Rocket blower!

This story made me smile.

Yet another thing to worry about taking your gear through airport security it seems .

The menaces that lie unseen in our camera bags.....

Hilarious! I'm generally amazed at the lack of interest in the contents of our DSLR & Lens filled camera bags though.

I pack charger leads, monopods and mini tripods in my suitcase in case they are considered dangerous.

My camera bag is always thoroughly searched, often with everything taken out and the lenses and camera separately x-rayed, and the batteries checked. Never had a problem with the Rocket Blower though, at least not yet.
My tripod goes in my checked bag, taking up valuable space, since it isn't allowed as carry on.
Oddly some airlines will allow walking poles, with sharp spikes, as carry on, but they won't allow tripods or monopods.

It is all enough to tempt me to take just a little P&S with me when I fly.

That's very funny!

Typical airport security!! They go from one extreme to another. I can recall an incident in early 1989 I had to hand-carry a set of urgent documents to Paris when I worked for TNT Skypak (as it was known then). As it was an extremely time-sensitive delivery, I was still in my overalls (I was an ops clerk at that time), and had totally forgotten that I still had a retractable Stanley knife in one of the pockets. As you can guess, I triggered the archway alarm when I passed through, but couldn't for the life of me figure out why. All the "usual suspects" were removed (belt, watch, metal-barrelled pens, etc), and still was tripping the alarm. The security guy gave me a pat-down, and lo and behold he found a "foreign object" in my overall pocket. I was extremely sheepish when I had to reveal a knife to him, but quite nonchalantly he asked me if I was on a straight turnaround, and when I confirmed this, he gave me the knife back and passed me through security and onto the flight! Note that the Lockerbie disaster had only taken place a matter of months earlier!! Nowadays, you can't even walk through the security area wearing footwear!!

Heathrow have confirmed that a Monopod is acceptable as carry-on luggage. Mine has a tungsten spike on the end and they approved it before a trip earlier this year.

Rather that outbound, consider inbound. If the Greeks are jittery about a rocket blower, a tungsten-tipped monopod looks worth every day of a 7-year jail sentence

Security guards at CDG were baffled by my rocket blower when I transitted through on my way to Japan. They looked at it, asked what it does, I demonstrated how it works and for about 10-20 seconds the guard went to his colleagues blowing air into their faces...hilarity all round.

That's the ONLY only good experience of that horrid airport.

Pity it wasn't a real rocket!!... If ever I decide to commit hara-kiri at an airport, CDG would be my airport of choice! It makes some of Africa's worst, smallest airports look like luxury hotels by comparison!

Be careful making comments like this - the security services may be monitoring the forum and could be knocking on your door shortly accusing you of making threats against an airport - wasn't there a case like this last year at Nottingham or Newcastle airports?

I had no idea tripods were forbidden in handluggage, and have flown with one in my carry-on bag a few times (I try and avoid having hold luggage at all if I can!)

I don't believe they are. Heathrow Customer Service told me that they would be find provided the airline would accept them and they were within the size constraints.

I've been told several times that my (metal) tripod is fine, despite having spikes. I don't like to test it though.

Occasionally one can see the point of some airport security. The missus and I were returning to UK from Washington International Airport sometime in the 1980s shortly after a highjacking or similar event. A 'spare' security man came over to check my camera bag - I was then using a Spotmatic. He noticed the 105 mm telephoto lens, took off both caps and looked through it. I was rather impressed by his thoroughness. If one can buy a coffee cup that looks like a Canikon lens, then it shouldn't be too hard to make a hand grenade look superficially like a medium telephoto.

Martin