My first kilted flying experience

**ratspike** · 2nd June 16, 07:25 AM

At present I'm 37,995 feet above the ground, hurtling along at 572mph, and in the iron grip of stark terror. I thought I'd share my experience flying whilst kilted in hopes it'll take my mind off the fear.

Knowing that I'd have a really rough time I decided that being as comfortable as possible was top priority. A small messenger bag with the bare minimum essentials, Teva sandals, and a lightweight kilt. We hit the airport at 3:30am, so the queue at the TSA dog and pony show moved along quickly. The small amount of hardware on my kilt is plastic, which I figured would be no big deal, but it still set off an alert in the body scanner. I'd decided against opting out to save the potential hassle, but it turns out I got a patdown anyway. With this being my first time flying since 9/11, and with all the terrible experiences many people have had with TSA, I was hoping to sail through with no issues. I have to give the agent who pulled me out big props for being a smooth operator. The kilt didn't phase him and he didn't make it weird, nor did he feel the need to run his hands up the inside until he "met resistance".

On the flight itself, I gotta say, it's super comfortable as you'd expect. No comments in the terminal or on the plane, a few looks I guess, fine by me. All in all, air travel in a kilt gets two thumbs up from me. Next time you fly I highly recommend giving it a go.

On on that note, it looks like we're 27 short minutes away from landing in Denver! My sister in law has confirmed that she's standing by with whiskey to calm my jangled nerves, and I'm stoked for a super cool five days in Fort Collins.

tl;dr - I wore a kilt on a plane, didn't get groped going through security, it's a super comfy way to fly, would recommend to others!

**Steve Ashton** · 2nd June 16, 11:31 AM

I offer a hint to anyone flying with a traditional type kilt with straps and buckles.

Put all your stuff in your sporran and the sporran through the x ray.

Then, just before you step through the metal detector - twist your kilt on your body 90 degrees. This puts your metal buckles in the front and back. (let them see you do this) Walk through the detector slowly. Metal detectors are set to a certain mass of metal, and by having less mass go through at one time I have been able to pass through metal detectors 9 times out of 10.

**tpa** · 2nd June 16, 01:32 PM

I have flown many times in a kilt. It is definitely the most comfortable way to travel. Sometimes Steve's suggestion works, sometimes not. I also routinely remove garters and shoes, even if if told it is not necessary, as if the scanner goes off, they will ask you to remove your shoes and put them back through the baggage scanner, causing further delay. Never had a problem with inappropriate pat downs, but have no experience of the US. Security did loose my sporran once for about 5 minutes, so now it goes into my back pack as opposed to loose in the tray. (I think one of the operators put it into different tray which was picked up by someone else.)
For me keeping my eyes on my belongings through security is one of the most stressful parts of flying, especially when delayed by a pat down as there are no checks on who picks up what on the exit side.

**robert_law** · 2nd June 16, 02:26 PM

In January I flew to Florida from Glasgow in a kilt was slight issue with buckles seting of alarm but they where ok about it , I did not wear a kilt pin , I got lots of compliments on arrival in Florida!

**Layne** · 3rd June 16, 01:56 PM

and have just gotten used to "being randomly selected for additional security screening".

**GrainReaper** · 3rd June 16, 05:08 PM

While in Fort Collins, do stop in the breweries and brewpubs out there, it's a fine place to enjoy some quality craft beer, I'm a fan of new Belgium so I pop in when I can for a brewery tour and tasting!