What would be the cheapest solution for being able to bring 16 rack spaces onto a plane with me? Is it easier to arrange it thru fedex?

Its getting to where its cheaper for me to fly out and do records elsewhere, but would like to bring some of my stuff. Where are places that sell cheap flight case racks? Can you get by without having the shockmounted kind or is that mandatory?

air cargo can be pretty pricey especially if you are going far. there are size and weight restrictions. Fedex is pretty fast and not badly priced.

remember the maximum weight a single item can be (as lugage) is 32kg, although your airline will have further restrictions

narco

Narco,

most airlines are imposing a 50 lb rule. And if memory serves me correctly, it costs $50 extra to ship an additional package up to 50lbs.

Most people I know put their stuff in a flight case and either carry on (if possible) or lock it up, box it up and use a major parcel service the day they leave for their destination (personally, I am a real fan of DHL over the other services... fast, and never had an issue with a package going missing or opened, plus they do not use contractors in my area, as opposed to FedEx)

There's only one safe way to do this as far as I'm concerned.

Box the individual pieces of gear carefully (bubble wrap, peanuts, double boxes if heavy, etc...) and rack them when you get there.

At that point, shipping or airline would probably work, but give your back a break and let FedEx worry about it.

Flight cases don't always make gear safer; for one thing, they make it heavier and that makes any impact worse than it would be.

I use 24" bubble wrap with large bubbles, and roll that sucker up in it until you can drop it three feet (a requirement... shipping companies won't pay for damage unless the item could be dropped three feet without damage.)

what max said.
a lot of people are not awere of the three feet requirement shipping companies have.

For the mission critical stuff- Pelican cases (http://www.pelican.com/) with several inches of foam in it custom cut for your gear. Plan for at least a couple inches of foam on all sides of a given piece of equipment. Also, use zip ties to close it up and tape some extras to the outside of the case. TSA *will* open your cases. Don't give them an excuse to damage anything.

-Ben