I’m fresh off LEVA’s five-day Video Analysis in Collision Reconstruction course instructed by the esteemed Mark Crouch and Stephen Cash. Many valuable takeaways, but those are for another day. Today, a solid tip for traveling with laser scanners.

I’ve schlepped many a scanner around airports over the years, first the FARO M70 and S350, (weighing in at 19 pounds a piece) and now the Leica RTC360 (weighing in at 26 pounds). You can really feel that extra 7 pounds… and despite the extra weight, it’s more forgiving when you’ve got one in each hand. The suitcase carry tends to tweak my back.

FARO S350 and Leica RTC360 on our Intercomp SW500 scales.

It took me far too long to upgrade to a backpack, which makes the long walks through the airport much more enjoyable (see chapter 20, ≤50 Pounds, in Michael Easter’s stellar book The Comfort Crisis for an in-depth discussion of humans' history carrying weight on our back).

Action shot from a random airport last week.

While they're on the pricey side, if you regularly indulge in the thrill of airborne adventure, I highly recommend investing in a scanner backpack. I've had good luck with this one for the Leica and this one for the FARO.

Thanks for reading, keep exploring!

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom

P.S. The podcast is back! We're kicking off the comeback with Jeff Suway, discussing human factors, luminance, retro tape, video analysis, and much more. Click here to listen or watch.