Tubas on planes

[Basement]

This summer I will be embarking on a tour through Prague and Vienna, taking my personal horn. What are some of your stories regarding previous flights with equipment? What are some tips you guys have to better protect the horn?

[Sousaswag]

Buy a seat for it. Never put it under the plane.

[Diego A. Stine]

Travel with an expensive horn IF:
1. You are getting paid or you are going for free
2. You are traveling for an audition on a tight schedule (i.e. college auditions)
3. You are checking it in a bulletproof case. The minimum amount of protection I would check my horn in would be a horn in its gig bag, bell stuffed with bubble wrap, all in a Walt Johnson case. A custom fit aluminum case is ideal (such as the Meinl Weston aluminum cases, Anvil, etc), but very expensive and difficult to procure. *MTS and SKB are NOT flight safe* I've heard stories of people pushing their luck in those cases and the stock Yamaha cases, but that's the exception, not the rule.
4. You've bought a seat for it in its gig bag. This is not cheap on international flights, but it's the safest, easiest, and offers the most peace of mind.

Only fly with your personal horn if one of the first two conditions and one of the second two conditions are met.
If you can, borrow one there if you know it's playable (hopefully similar to your horn). Or fly with a horn that you won't be too upset about if it gets wrecked.

D

[MaryAnn]

That's because if it is too heavy for one person to throw it, they call in a helper.

[Dylan King]

I agree with Bloke regarding the Walt Johnson cases. I have one for my Yorkbrunner. The wheels broke off the first time I flew with it, and it does chip easily.

If I had to fly with a big tuba, I’d probably buy a seat and use a gig bag.

I have, however flown with my little YFB-622 F tuba several time in the last few years, checking it in the hard case. Thanks to some serious reinforcement with Gorilla Tape, the case has held up so far. I give it a few more flights before disaster strikes. But one never knows. It could break apart with the right (or wrong) kind of handling.

[sloan]

I tell everyone who flies - and contacts me privately asking "how to pack their tubas" - to pack them in large corrugated cartons as if they were shipping rather than as if they were traveling.
Their response - consistently - is a big frown.

Even better - when possible, plan ahead and ACTUALLY SHIP instead of pretending that a flight case is "luggage".

Luggage is designed to be tossed around. Shipping crates are not.

They are designed to be skewered by fork lifts...

[toobagrowl]

Wow, has it really gotten that dangerous to fly tubas on planes these days?

Roughly fifteen years ago (when I was still taking auditions), all I had was a regular hard case for my CC and an Altieri bag for my Eb. I think I put a mostly-inflated basketball in the CC tuba bell, taped in, inside the hard case. For my Eb tuba, I think I stuffed the tuba down a sleeping bag, with clothes and pillows in the Altieri bag and wrapped that carpet foam padding stuff around the bag. I paid the baggage handler guy $20 to safely put my tubas on the plane each time I was at the airport. No damage at all to my tubas or case/bag. But again, that was like 15 years ago. Have things changed that much since then

[Matt Walters]

A repairman's perspective In regards to flying with a nice tuba? One that you actually like/love?

What are some tips you guys have to better protect the horn?

1) DON'T!! Unless you have a serious flight case for your tuba and get paid extra by whatever group is going on tour to reimburse you the overweight and oversized fees, plus deal with the over-hassle logistics that small instrument players don't have to deal with.
2) DON'T!! Unless you have privately insured the instrument with coverage that will cover damage, not just theft. But of course you personally have to pay for that and more expensively so than someone with cheap $2000 trumpet.
3) DON'T!! Unless you don't care that your favorite tuba is more likely to get damaged than any other instrument in the band you are traveling with.

It's always the egotist that only has to wave a little stick in front of the band or the 2nd chair players on the little instruments that get the great idea of the band traveling overseas.

If it is a volunteer Group your choices are:
1) Did you really want to go to wherever it is? If not, just say "No. I have made other plans for that date. Please hire a substitute." Your mind should be thinking "someone dumber than me". Especially if you have to buy the tickets plus pay the extra fees the other band members don't have to pay.

2) If it is somewhere you always wanted to go: Own and take the throw away tuba you don't care about. Something so bad that another dent might make it look better. Something so cheap...…..well, you get the idea. Bad news is most tuba players only have one tuba.

3) If it is a school sponsored trip and you must go, insist on taking a school owned tuba. No matter how bad it is. Let them deal with insurance, logistics, etc.

[Ken Herrick]

Ya got it , Matt.

Let's get real - tubas are not baggage. They don't fit inside airplanes cargo holds, baggage handling systems etc. It just AINT like the old days when airlines flying Elecktras had spare seats and let tuba have one and let the person accompanying it have a seat and the tubas meal and drinks for no charge other than playing for the crew after landing, which might lead to a good party after landing.

Stop expecting an outfit trying to make money pander to your extreme demands for a lot of costly pandering to your demands.

[bort]

About 15 years ago, my community band took a trip to Austria. A few months before the trip, the director asked me how I was getting my tuba over there. I said "I don't know, how are you getting your tympani over there?" That was a conversation-ender. A few weeks later, he pulled me aside and said there would be a tuba waiting for me in Innsbruck upon arrival.

No, it probably won't always be this easy. But arranging to rent/borrow a tuba at your destination isn't impossible either, especially if you have a friend or connection on the ground at your destination.

[Doug Elliott]

"I don't know, how are you getting your tympani over there?"

Perfect. There's really no better response than that.