My job rquires that I fly every week, and I always have several whistles in my laptop bag (2 Clarkes; 2 Sweetones; Susato D, A and sometimes low D; and Dixon D and A, usally all at once), and I've never had a bit of trouble. I've checked with both airline and security supervisors and been told there's no reason to restrict any of these, and I've never had them questioned by the x-ray screeners. I've seen what they look like on the x-ray, and if you know what a whistle is, you can tell what they are. And the image is clear enough that even if you don't know what a whistle is, you can tell these aren't anything that's prohibited.
The only time I've had anyone express any interest in them is when I've been picked for "random" search and they're going through my bag. I keep the whistles all in Susato bags, so they always pull them out and ask what's in them, but the most that ever happens is they ask me to take them out of the bag.
Once I offered to play one, and the security woman said "Go ahead if you want." So I played the A part of "Get Up Old Woman and Shake Yourself" while she went through the rest of my bag. Then she told me that the week before, they had a piper go through and one of the new security guys asked him to play, more out of curiosity than anything. "We won't do that again," she said.
Here's a list of TSA prohibited items -- nothing even close to a whistle.
http://www.dfwairport.com/misc/pdf/banned_items.pdf
If any of the security people give you any crap, ask for a supervisor.
And finally, concerning federalization of airport security -- I've seen some very good airport security operations, and I've also seen security personnel who look like they either just got off work release or were the product of some security company's "Hire the Stupid" program. I will be more than willing to settle for post office standards; consistent mediocrity would be an improvement at many of the airports I've been in.
Those things HURT!
