Posted by Rick Denney on June 28, 2000 at 10:39:16:
In Reply to: Re: FLIGHT CASE RECOMMENDATION??? posted by Jay Bertolet on June 27, 2000 at 17:26:47:
Jay, have you have problems getting the airlines to accept an Anvil case?
One of the TubaMeisters, when they were up in my neck of the woods last year, brought his Rudy Meinl 5/4 in a Anvil-style case. Going back, the airline (Continental) would not accept it, and they took it only for their shipping rate, which was something like $200.
One of the others had a conventionally shaped case, and had no problems checking it as a bag.
One problem with the pillows thing: It puts a lot of pressure on the outside of the horn. Unless you stuff the inside of the branches just as much, you might make the horn more vulnerable rather than less vulnerable by overstuffing it with packing materials. You are better off supplementing your case with PVC pipe sections wedged between the sides of the case and threaded between the tubes (with padding) to transfer any crushing load through the PVC pipe rather than through the horn should the case start to crush.
The most vulnerable part of a standard case, from an engineering standpoint, is the edge of the bell. It is easy for that to be prised like a bottle cap. That's one real advantage to the Anvil-style case, if you can get the airlines to accept it.
Rick "Tubist vs. Airlines, Round 476863" Denney