thumb on the scale at airport check-in

"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in message
...
A post from a well-known Scottish musician on the Footstompin forum:

: I'm off for a fairly long trip in October and i have to take a fair
: amount of luggage with me, i just bought some decent digital scales
: so i could try and remain low on weight. Out of interest i thought
: i'd start by weighing one of my guitars in its case. Usually when
: weighed at the airport it comes out at 8 or 8.1 Kg but on my own
: scales it comes out at 6.9 Kg, thats fifteen quid or thereabouts.

: Does anyone know when or how often the scales at airport check in
: are calibrated and whether or not i can legally challenge their
: weigh in?

Comments, anyone?

Commercial scales are individually certified over a range of values.
Domestic scales are not normally certified and the accuracy is usually
measured only at the maximum reading. which means that there can,
legitimately, be quite high errors at the bottom end of the range. I would
only trust the 'decent digital scales' if they were medical grade certified
scales.

Colin Bignell

nightjar cpb@ wrote:
"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in message
...
A post from a well-known Scottish musician on the Footstompin forum:

: I'm off for a fairly long trip in October and i have to take a fair
: amount of luggage with me, i just bought some decent digital scales
: so i could try and remain low on weight. Out of interest i thought
: i'd start by weighing one of my guitars in its case. Usually when
: weighed at the airport it comes out at 8 or 8.1 Kg but on my own
: scales it comes out at 6.9 Kg, thats fifteen quid or thereabouts.

: Does anyone know when or how often the scales at airport check in
: are calibrated and whether or not i can legally challenge their
: weigh in?

Comments, anyone?

Commercial scales are individually certified over a range of values.
Domestic scales are not normally certified and the accuracy is usually
measured only at the maximum reading. which means that there can,
legitimately, be quite high errors at the bottom end of the range. I would
only trust the 'decent digital scales' if they were medical grade certified
scales.

The scales used by jewellers tend to be reasonably accurate...

Airport scales in the UK are best described as 'variable'.

I have had a couple of nasty experiences that were only solved by
insisting on using the scales on the next check-in desk.

I have never seen a trading standards stamp/tag on an airport scale in
the UK...


--
William Black

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.

"nightjar .me.uk" cpb@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in message
...
A post from a well-known Scottish musician on the Footstompin forum:

: I'm off for a fairly long trip in October and i have to take a fair
: amount of luggage with me, i just bought some decent digital scales
: so i could try and remain low on weight. Out of interest i thought
: i'd start by weighing one of my guitars in its case. Usually when
: weighed at the airport it comes out at 8 or 8.1 Kg but on my own
: scales it comes out at 6.9 Kg, thats fifteen quid or thereabouts.

: Does anyone know when or how often the scales at airport check in
: are calibrated and whether or not i can legally challenge their
: weigh in?

Comments, anyone?

Commercial scales are individually certified over a range of values.
Domestic scales are not normally certified and the accuracy is usually
measured only at the maximum reading. which means that there can,
legitimately, be quite high errors at the bottom end of the range. I would
only trust the 'decent digital scales' if they were medical grade
certified scales.

For years my weight had always been round about 55kg. When I was at the
doctor's using their analog scale with large round dial, it was 50kg! And
that was fully dressed..

More recently they used digital scales with only 0.5Kg resolution. I'd
rather trust my own digital 0.1Kg scales (cross-checked from time to time
with one or two others), to anything 'medical' where every scale (especially
analog) says something different.

BTW that must be quite a hefty guitar (even with a case) at some 8Kg, What's
that, about the same as 4x 2L bottles of coke to carry about? I've just
weighed an analog guitar (no case) at 1.6Kg.

--
bartc

"bartc" wrote in message
om...
.....
More recently they used digital scales with only 0.5Kg resolution. I'd
rather trust my own digital 0.1Kg scales (cross-checked from time to time
with one or two others), to anything 'medical' where every scale
(especially analog) says something different.
....

I did say medical grade *certified* scales. Medical scales are sold both
certified and uncertified. The latter are only better made than most
domestic scales, not necessarily more accurate.

Colin Bignell.