Ever packed anything inside your big dome port?

In trying to squeeze all this dive and camera gear into (only) two suitcases, one of them a Pelican, I'm trying to find any space I can.

My Pelican suitcase is basically full at this point, but it only weighs 42 pounds.   I have almost zero space left to carve out for another object as I need some padding in there, but I have a problem.   None of the four 8-inch strobe arms are in the Pelican.  (Along with three more strobes, but that's another issue.)

Now I can easily find room for four small strobe arms, but the reason they aren't already in there is due to the Stix floats on them.  (6 of them, and I have a 2 more spares).

The problem is where to put the Stix so I can have all the parts I need to put together my rig in a single suitcase.

Which brings me to that mouth-watering amount of empty space within my 230mm dome port.   I've never put anything in there, though I've thought about something like socks or underwear.

I'm considering finding some soft bags, putting the Stix floats inside, then fitting that bag inside the dome port.   My concern, of course, is something rubbing on the inside of the dome and scuffing it, but in this case that seems a remote possibility.

Comments?  Experiences?

Hi Craig,

I am reluctant to stuff anything into a domeport. Socks may be o.k., but then there is the problem of dust and fluff you may get into...

Do you carry the pelican case as cabin luggage or is it check in? I had to give up to carry all photo gear as carry on, although this is obviously the best as the luggage cannot be lost then (what a performance: you are on your diving destination and cannot take photos! ). But it is just not possible to take everything as carry on...

As Kelpdiver says, there are a lot of items in the equipment, that are, more or less, practically undestructible and easily can go into the check-in lugagge. In my case this are not only strobe arms and floats, but also chargers, cables, even domeports and housings in their stuffed travelling bags (Nauticam). This all goes into roller hardcases. We prefer roller hardcases over pelican or dedicated diving bags as these draw the attention of airline-stuff, customs officers and even thieves on them, while the hardcases look pretty neutral. Two people (both have system cameras (Olympus MFT), complete diving gears and even few determination books) make three check-in suitcases plus a photo-bag and a photo-rucksack everybody. I admit that we have very little space for other items, e.g. clothing. Maybe we have to extend to four suitcases in the future, as I just now upgraded to a FF-system (Sony).

Only very fragile equipment as flashes, cameras, lenses, diving computers, diving compass, laptop and, of course all accus, goes into the carry on luggage, that is just within the weight limits..

The value of the ceck-in luggage, with all these items, is much more than an airline would refund in case it would get lost. For this case I have insurance that will reimburse me in case...

Wolfgang

I gave up on the idea of using that space for the same reasons you cite.  I ended up pulling all the STIX floats off the arms and putting them in the suitcase.   The four 8 inch arms ended up in the last free space in the Pelican.

The Pelican is a suitcase, the 1615 Air.  I used all the space while still leaving foam between the pieces.   Ended up around 42 pounds so I squeezed in a hooded vest, plus wheel weights for the dome port.  Still short of 50.

I still had 3 strobes, a snoot and a bunch of STIX floats to put in my suitcase, along with all my dive gear.

I've cut down what I travel with to the minimum (plus a spare strobe), and I'm still traveling with 89 pounds of check in luggage, plus 23 more pounds (camera and lenses) in my waist bag carry on, plus another 11 pounds of carryon stuff in a backpack (laptop, headphones, sweatshirt and blanket for the planes).

Some how that's managed to still be 20 pounds less than I used to carry on, due to sticking the housing, port and misc stuff in the Pelican.

I have minimal clothes in this luggage.