And my question may be moot because of this – maybe we’ll fly with what we can, and purchase a kit of tools in Detroit! Ugh.
My last team has flown with tools & parts before and it worked well. We used totes (Recycle Rush leftovers & similar) as our checked luggage and didn’t hear a peep about it, besides the usual “did you pack this yourself, does it contain any banned items” questions. We even brought our ~4-5 foot can-grabber as a checked item in 2015, and checked it through the “surfboards and other odd-shaped/oversized items” line.
They did open and inspect a few of the totes after we checked them through, and resealed them with packing tape even though they were originally sealed with zip-ties. We didn’t have any issues with it though, the tape held and everything made it there safe and sound. I also encourage my students to pack their personal pocket knives & multi-tools with the team tools, since they can’t be in their carry-on.
The load in instructions in the first post are the new process.
I suspect that the actual new process will be the load-in volunteers yelling at teams to hurry up but I’d love to be wrong about that.
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The loading guide says GP needs to be on display at all times, so you can always cite that I guess
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The load-in at Detroit was as slow as it was chaotic. Although, teams had been advised to unload their equipment immediately inside the loading dock doors, move their vehicle, then move equipment to their pit area, very few actually did that.
That clogged the loading dock for hours on end.
I’m sure the load-in staff will attempt to keep things flowing this year, but I suspect humanity will take-over once more and chaos will ensue once again…
I would say to you, don’t be too concerned. Make your best effort to arrive as early as you can… safely… and be prepared to wait…
We were there a good hour before pits opened last year and there was already a line of trailers waiting. Thankfully, they were letting teams unload and stage inside the loading dock waiting for pits to open, so once they opened we simply rolled everything over. (We also got lucky and a had a pit in the back row so we were very close the dock entrance.)
Looks to be the identical path they used last year. I don’t see it being any faster.
I see a couple meaningful differences.
I read the PDF and I get the procedure. But do they offer a location to park truck and trailer after it’s unloaded for the event, or are you on your own to find a location?
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Thank you!
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Looking at the drawing, there are 2 lanes of traffic vs 1 last year. It appears that the whole dock area is available for unloading, which wasn’t true last year.
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I traveled with the Manitowoc County teams last year and I agree it was about a 3 hour wait after arriving about the same time you did. This year we intend to get there around 10AM.
It didn’t help that there was a dead bus in the way part of the time.
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@EricLeifermann -looks like we both made it into loading earlier this year. We are behind the Wave Robotics bus and trailer.
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Kudos to Detroit this year. We got there at 1pm and was unload in 20 min.
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Out trailer got there between 1-2pm and there was no wait!
However, the problems started after that. Our poor driver went to the trailer/bus parking and it was full, and then spent HOURS looking for a spot to put it before finally getting back to there and someone left.
I went to FRC and FTC pit admin, and no one was able to help, as well as several other random locals. It turned into a really frustrating mess.