Make sure your pelican fits the carry on sizes. Make sure you’re not flying on any E-145 or CRJ-200/700 or similar tiny planes because many of them cannot even fit a normal roller bag in overhead in which case you may need to “valet check” which is only slightly better than “gate check”… they still take your bags and put them in the cargo hold, but instead of having to pick them up at baggage claim, you’ll pick them up at the end of the jetway when you get off the plane. (and sometimes they’ll just gate check). A standard roller bag or pelican 1510 will fit into the overhead of a E-175 and maybe a CRJ-900 but space is limited so get on the plane as early as you can, if you’re not in premium boarding, be a jerk and camp at the line until the millisecond they call your boarding group. But keep in mind that I’ve seen situations where they’ve just said “we’re making everyone gate check cause we’re tight on time to board” so you may end up being forced to check regardless (you can try to play oblivious and get the tag and try to bring your bag onto the plane and it may still work but you can get shut down).

Keep in mind you’re allowed one overhead and one under seat… so if you can break up the equipment that way and check your cloths (which worst case you can buy at your destination if that gets lost).

Look into if you can rent some equipment on location. It might not be bad to investigate what your options are for renting at your destination, just incase something does happen in travel.

If you have an iPhone get some AirTags to put in the case. If you’re android, check out Tile trackers.