I take off whatever can be removed without tools.
If it is attached by gravity or velcro, it could come off in the plane and be separated from DDs wheelchair. We have been traveling with a wheelchair for many years and I have always taken her wheelchair apart and brought pieces on board the plane with me.
As I take pieces off at the gate, I place them into a cloth laundry bag so I dont drop any of the small pieces.
This is a picture of DDs old wheelchair, where you can see her seatback and the headrest. The picture is her old manual wheelchair, but those pieces are the same on her new wheelchair.
The back is a Jay Deep Contour Back , which has a solid shell and a cloth and foam cushion that velcros onto the shell. There are also some smaller positioning pieces velcroed under the cloth. The seatback is heavy and sort of awkwardly shaped.
This picture shows the back of that same wheelchair and you can see the antitipper bars on the bottom of the back. It also shows her seat cushion - a very thick Jay Deep Contour Seat. The seat cushion is almost 5 inches thick at the front, heavy, expensive and has a part inside filled with gel, which would get very messy if the cushion gets punctured ( plus, if the gel was gone, the cushion would not work).
This picture doesn't show her headrest, but does show the Jay back quite well, so you can see how it is shaped. We fit it on the plane in the overhead bin without trouble. It fastens with a clip on each side, plus a pin that fits into a receiving part on the wheelchair frame. Very easy to remove and put back on.
This is what I remove:
- the armrests. The armrests on her old wheelchair were lifted slightly and then could be swung to the side and lifted off. Her new wheelchair has armrests that are clamped on, but I do remove them because I cant get the seat off if they stay on.
- the seatback. DDs wheelchair has a Jay Deep Contour back. The cushion for the back is velcrod on. I take the entire Jay back off so that it does get dislodged, soiled or torn.
- the headrest. DDs headrest is a Stealth headrest that is attached to her setback. The bar with the headrest folds down when we dont need it or it can be removed by loosening 2 finger tightened bolts. I remove the headrest because the seatback is much smaller without the headrest on it.
- the anti-tippers from the back. I have tipped them up and they are pretty securely attached, but one got bent on the plane once and those babies are expensive. One antitipper cost $100, so I removed them after that.
- the seat cushion. Her seat cushion is a Jay Deep Contour seat cushion with a gel insert. I remove this for several reasons;
The baggage hold gets very cold and the gel will come close to freezing.
The cushion could get soiled or torn.
The gel part of the cushion could get punctured.
The cushion attaches with velcro and could come off.
When I get done removing things, I fold the back canes down and secure them with the seat belt. The footrests are not removable; she has straps on the footrests to hold her feet. I fasten the straps together and kind of tuck them into the footrests so they dont get caught on anything.
After I am done taking everything apart, the antippers, headrest and armrests are in the laundry bag. I put the Jay seat cushion in the overhead bin, seat side up. I put the seatback on top of it with the seat back so that the cushion side is down against the seat cushion. That normally takes up most of the height of the overhead bin, so nothing else will fit. If there is still room, I put the laundry bag with small pieces on top.
If that wont fit, I put the laundry bag by itself in the overhead bin. Because the small pieces are in the bag, I dont have to worry about losing them and they are mostly metal or fairly hard, so wont get crushed.
When she had removable footrests, I also took those off.
If you want to gate check your large container, you could take the wheelchairs apart, put the pieces in the container and gate check that with the wheelchairs. I would suggest marking the container very well with your name, cell phone number, what it contains and that it is gate checked.
I would also bring duct tape to secure the bin shut (be sure to bring extra for the trip home). And, possibly some clear packing tape to secure the gate check tag to it. The airline people will need to gate check tag both the wheelchair frame and the container.