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Traveling with drones - Please SHARE your experience to help others

smog

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Jul 19, 2017
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40
Guys, as I see many of us are kinda lost regarding traveling with our drones. Since I did not find any good sheet regarding this I created a sub page on my website. Drone owners like us can easily check and filter departure and arrival and check if anything to worry about or we should be aware before our trip.

Easy to search for almost everything, and also regulation files are available to upload.

» Drone Airplane Regulations and Tips

To avoid any spam flood the submissions will be reviewed within 12-24 hours, but after time this can be incredibly handy for all of us. If you have any experience please share with us.

If you see someone already posted similar departure/arrival country, don't worry... duplication is not a problem. At least we can be sure that most of the travelers had the same experience with the security or regulations.

Thank you!
 
I think that an important aspect is what the airline agree as basis.
What a particular person achieved to do at a particular time and airport is not that relevant. Could be interesting as input for a compilation of real application of IATA / airline guideline as usually we have to deal with security people at airport and not airline people (at least at first).

The readiness for traveling (check before flight how airline is handling restricted goods, have documentation of the batteries [wh], ...) seems to me more important than what each people experienced at airport. Inputs from experienced travelers would be for sure good.

Did you plan to do such compilation ?
 
Sure that can be also added as an additional section. Can you please give some specific variants/values should be added to the sheet? Country/airline are 2 and maybe 3rd as a general note section, 4th for additional regulation documentation upload option.
 
The point is to extract by example specific problem at a given airport or with a given airline that would not follow IATA general regulation (I am here speaking worldwide) and compile general rules (with exception as usual) / recommendations. We are facing at least dual limitation factors:
1) General security screening at airport, which can be from easy to big pain.
2) Airline that deal with risk in airplane regarding mainly LIPO batteries following their own / IATA / national rules, this can be usually anticipated.
3) What I missed...

One aspect that could be added to your list is date. What is valid now, need to be weighted in the future as less reliable info.
 
Just got back from the Dominican Republic. I brought the spark with me as a carry on. No issues with customs entering or leaving the country. No hassles flying jet blue either. I was nervous about bringing it but nobody even gave it a glance. But, in the DR and many 2nd/3rd world countries, always, always carry a little cash in case you get hassled by the authorities. Hand them a couple hundred pesos ($4-$5 US) and tell them you want to bless their family. Then you're good to go.
 
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I have been through TSA multiple times with My Blade Chroma and now my Spark. I carried my chroma in a carry-on backpack when we flew to Martinique in December 2015 . I was advised to let the TSA know that I was carrying it and I did and I was given extra scrutiny including a complete wipe down for explosives. There was or is a limit on the capacity of lipos that you can bring on the plane and I honestly don't know what the number is but I think it is 10,000 mA H but they did not seem to take that into consideration. This was Norwegian air and the international terminal.

I got nearly exactly the same treatment when returning home from Martinique at their airport including not paying any attention to the battery sizes. I've flown my Chroma in Canada multiple times but those were car trips.

The main reason I got the Spark was for travel and it was in preparation for a trip which we just took for summer vacation. I told the TSA agent that I had an sUAS in my bag and so they could inspect it And his response was well what's that. I told him I was carrying a drone did I need to take it out and he said no just throw it on the x-ray line. Sparky is a great travel companion. This was Southwest and the Bahamas.

I had been coveting a Mavic for its packability for my Powersports adventures and traveling as well but I am certain that I would've been given more scrutiny carrying the Mavic then I got with the spark. the case it's in and all of the parts including the chargers are so small it just looks like camera or laptop accessories.
 
Many of the videos/discussion of this topic are from larger drone owners. The spark is smaller than my DSLR and the batteries are the same size. I've never done anything special with my DSLR so i'm hoping the same with the Spark. Traveling domestically for the holidays. I know the spark LIPO batteries are under the 100mw rating so we should be good to go there.
 
Hi folks. I will be going to the Maldives feb18. Any one been and is it ok. Flying emirates from uk
 

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