Flying to Shetland

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Mima

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Hi - I'm flying to from Sweden to Shetland in June to photograph birds. I just realized that Loganair's hand luggage limit is very restricted - 6kg, 40cm x 35cm x 18cm. All of you who have travelled to Shetland how did you do with your camera equipment? Are Loganair very strict with their luggage policy? Beside my camera body I have the Canon 100-400mm ii, Canon 500mm ii, Samyang 14mm and the Canon 24-70mm that I want to bring.

I don't want to check in the camera equipment, but right now I don't see much of another option.

Thanks
 
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Are you ony taking hand luggage?
Im gussing your equipment is haavier than 6kg. Im going to dublin and going to have a similar problem. Can you get a bag in the overhead storage on the plane
 
I went to shetland last year from Inverness via Kirkwall in Orkney. I had my gear in a Lowepro Vertex AW200, 2 DSLR bodies and grips, sigma 120-300, sigma 70-200, sigma 24-105 plus a tc. The bag wouldn't fit into the o'head- it's just a 2+1 arrangement on seats and there's not a lot of space in the ohead. Stewardess took my bag and stowed it under the seat of a spare seat. One of my friends had to check theirs at the plane steps and pick it up immediately on landing.

I've also travelled with Loganair to Islay and they are a fairly relaxed airline. No corners cut but not being jobsworth about weights, etc. They want you to get there with all your gear as long as you're not being silly about it.
 
Wear a jacket with several big pockets and stick some kit in the pockets.

Enjoy Shetland!
 
Thanks for all the advices! After reading Jim_Tod's post and some consideration of what to do I think I will order the Think Thank Airport Commuter bag (31.6 × 45.7 × 21.6cm) to carry my gear on the plane. It's the smallest bag with the least weight (1.9kg) that I could find that can take at least my Canon 500mm and 100-400mm lens. I will travel from Edinburgh so I keep my fingers crossed that this will be ok :)
 
Carry your camera body and the heaviest lens ... the rest in the bag?
 
From my measurements I believe the camera body, Canon 500mm, Canon 100-400mm and also the Canon 24-70mm will fit. The rest I will pack in a west, in my pockets or in the checked baggage. I have order the bag and I will receive it in a couple of days. Then I will now for sure if it will work. I will also be flying to Fair Isle so I can't bring a lot off stuff. The weight limit is 15kg for that flight. Right now I have 10kg equiment and only 5 kg left for clothes and personal stuff...
 
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Take the boat [emoji51]
You can take an oversized (but 6kg or less) piece of hand luggage and have it ‘valet-tagged’ - where you can carry it to the plane but it will then be placed in the hold after the other bags are loaded. On arrival it will be brought to the aircraft steps for you.

You could probably carry the body and 100-400 with you and just put the 500 etc in the bag. Also, if you are through-booked all the way to Shetland via your first airline you may well be allowed 10kg hand luggage allowance.

Fair isle flight is 8 seat and has very little luggage space - if less than 8 people though, they’ll squeeze bags in the back seats. Try and grab the pilot’s attention and you might get sit in the co-pilot seat [emoji106] I got a shot of flying it a few years ago [emoji3]
 
Thanks for the reply @crieffy and sorry for the late response. I have not logged in to the forum in a while. I tried to contact Logan Air to ask them if they could help me but I never received a response from them. Unfortunately it was not possible to buy a through-booked ticket from Sweden. So I think I will follow your advice and hope for the best. Worst scenario I need to turn back home ;-) And yes I should have taken the boat! :)
 
Mima said:
Hi - I'm flying to from Sweden to Shetland in June to photograph birds. I just realized that Loganair's hand luggage limit is very restricted - 6kg, 40cm x 35cm x 18cm. All of you who have travelled to Shetland how did you do with your camera equipment? Are Loganair very strict with their luggage policy? Beside my camera body I have the Canon 100-400mm ii, Canon 500mm ii, Samyang 14mm and the Canon 24-70mm that I want to bring.

I don't want to check in the camera equipment, but right now I don't see much of another option.

Thanks
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Out of interest, what birds can you see in Shetland that you could not see in Norway which would be closer to you? Or did you just like the idea of Shetland? Or is it cheaper?
This has been an interesting post for me as I want to go to Shetland one day and now I am thinking of going by Ferry.
 
It's true that Norway offer some great opportunities to photograph sea birds too @davholla . The next time I will probably travel there :) This time I was curious about Shetland. It seemed like a cool place and for me it's a little bit more exotic than Norway.
 
My daughter went by ferry from Aberdeen, came back with some nice photos especially one of an Otter in the sea.
Surprised when she told me there are no trees on Shetland, she used taxis and buses to get around, seemed to do ok with that.
 
Almost 3 years ago I travelled to Sumburgh Shetland from London City Airport with Flybe, or Fly Maybe as some of the locals called them. Was almost stranded overnight at Edinburgh Airport due to 'technical problems'. The carry on luggage size and weight was tight. I bought a shoulder bag suitably sized, and packed it to capacity with pieces of foam as protection and squeezed in an 11" MacBook Air too. I packed my rucksack in my checked in suitcase after removing all the dividers, photographed it first. It might have changed over 3 years, but Sumburgh Airport couldn't scan a boarding pass on a phone. Had to get a paper copy printed in Lerwick where I was staying. I bused around and walked, then hired a little VW Up for 4 days. Hope to go back again next year, but will drive up to Aberdeen and catch the ferry this time. Intend to take more kit, and also an old ex MOD backpack radio transceiver, a PRC-320, re my amateur radio hobby. Could never fly with all that.
 
Jim_Tod said:
It's just a 2+1 arrangement on seats and there's not a lot of space in the ohead....
One of my friends had to check theirs at the plane steps and pick it up immediately on landing.
Click to expand...

Hi there, i live in orkney. Exactly what jim said! They are small plane, the locker are tiny so you will be ask to hand it over. I've travel on these plane with a small lowepro bag with 1 camera 2 small lens and that is fine but anything bulky became too big very quickly.
 
Atlantic airways to the Faroes do have an 8kg limit. My bag plus assortments weighed 11kg but fortunately I wasn't stopped. But as the aircraft is an Airbus and I fly regularly with BA there is never a problem getting the bag into the bins... I guess if it's the ATR aircraft or a similar shorthaul plane (smaller than A320/737) then there are bins so small a single glove won't fit.
 
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