I was about to take my first trip overseas on a plane with Yui to a German meet up. Asking around, many performers take their masks as hand-held luggage, but Yui was too large for that, coming in at a minimum dimension of 25cm. The budget European airline we were taking had a 23cm limit, and they were known to be quite strict about enforcing this. I didn’t want to end up at the airline with them forcing me to check in the mask at the last minute, so she’d have to go checked in.
Asking around, other performers also put their masks in suitcases with careful padding, but that seemed scary. The performers I asked who didn’t carry on or use suitcases used drum cases. So I found a suitably sized case in a sale, a SKB D1414, a 14 inch tom case (for £70).
I was going to get foam to wrap around the mask, but decided instead to completely fill the case with foam and cut out a Yui-sized hole in the middle. So I bought four 18 inch by 18 inch blocks of packing foam from a UK company (for £40).
Then just some time to do measurements and cut the foam (with an electric carving knife).
Checking in the case was straightforward, although both times it had to be taken to a special counter at the airport once we’d checked it in and it was labelled. We’ve flown twice and there’s been no issues at all so far.
