Irate Retro
Second Officer
United States
Offline
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You didn't say where you were departing from, but based on your handle I'll assume this is a USA domestic flight. TSA rules say absolutely nothing about discharging to XX%, nor do they say anything about fireproof bags. I suspect the above 2 posters are not USA travelers; that or medicinal MJ is involved. Airlines are free to have more restrictive rules, but they aren't the ones that will be going through your bag.
You are only allowed to have 2 spare Li Ion batteries that are in the "large" category. I forget the exact value in watt-hours for the cutoff, but I'm pretty sure Phantom batteries fall into this size. Any batteries installed in devices don't count, so you can have 3 total Phantom batteries: 1 in the copter, and 2 spares. Note that if you carry a spare laptop battery, that eats into one of your allowed spares! It should go without saying, but you are not allowed to pack any of your spares in checked baggage, so don't be tempted to do this in order to bypass the 2 spares limit. By my reading of the rules, Li Ion batteries that are installed in devices are in fact allowed in checked baggage, but this seems like a very bad idea to me.
The terminals on spare Li ion batts are supposed to be taped with non conductive tape. But with the recessed terminals I doubt you'd catch any flack over it. Tape residue might cause problems later on, so clean it off well if you do decide to tape them.
If you have time, get a padded backpack made for the purpose. Unfortunately they are ridiculously overpriced just like the 3rd party hard cases. If you don't have time/money for that and are dead set on using your own general purpose backpack, at least try to fit something to the motors to protect them. They make motor caps that slip right on. Or you could probably fashion something yourself. Watch out for other pax jamming their suitcase into the overhead bin which is likely to break something on your aircraft. |
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