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DenverDTS
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United States
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Has anyone just thrown thier DJI3 on backpack and brought on a plane and put in an overhead bin? We are headed to Florida and want to bring the drone, but don't have a case.

2017-7-9
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HARLEYSCOTTE
lvl.1
Flight distance : 53747 ft
United States
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Check with the Airline -- You do need to discharge the Batterys & they need to be in a fireproof bag
2017-7-10
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fansd77b4cd0
lvl.3
New Zealand
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Hi, i've flown with my DJI a number of times, both long and short haul and it's been completely fine. They're a number of things you should consider before setting off on your flight.

1. Depending on your airline you batteries must be depleted by a certain amount, either 30% or 50%, go with 30% or completely dead to be safe.
2. You MUST take your drone and all batteries with you as carry on, the sudden change of temperature in the cargo cabin can cause lipo batteries to combust... not ideal on a plane!
3. Buy a specific backpack for your drone, don't use any old one as there's a pretty good chance your drone could break! Especially if there is turbulance. I always recommend the Manfrotto D1 backpack, i've taken it on flights with me all across the world and it's been completely fine. If you're interested you can check the backpack review here.

Hope this was of some help to you and you have a great trip!
2017-7-25
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fansd77b4cd0
lvl.3
New Zealand
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fansd77b4cd0 Posted at 2017-7-25 22:01
Hi, i've flown with my DJI a number of times, both long and short haul and it's been completely fine. They're a number of things you should consider before setting off on your flight.

1. Depending on your airline you batteries must be depleted by a certain amount, either 30% or 50%, go with 30% or completely dead to be safe.

Forgot to mention you need a lipo battery fire proof back as well
2017-7-25
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Irate Retro
Second Officer
United States
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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.
2017-7-26
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Labroides
Captain
Flight distance : 9991457 ft
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Australia
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Irate Retro Posted at 2017-7-26 00:09
You didn't say where you were departing from, by 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.

It takes a while to get the facts here.
The earlier mentions of Lipo bags and discharging batteries are both myths and no-one at the airport will care or ask about those.
The Phantom batteries have the their capacity printed on them and they are lower than 100WH so they are not classified as Large at all.

Go to your airline's website and search for batteries to see what they say.
It will be just like all the others and based on FAA guidelines which say that you cannot put the batteries in checked luggage but must carry them in carry-on luggage.
2017-7-26
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Irate Retro
Second Officer
United States
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Labroides Posted at 2017-7-26 01:03
It takes a while to get the facts here.
The earlier mentions of Lipo bags and discharging batteries are both myths and no-one at the airport will care or ask about those.
The Phantom batteries have the their capacity printed on them and they are lower than 100WH so they are not classified as Large at all.

Thanks for correcting my error about the Phantom batteries capacity.  I got off my lazy bum and dug out one of my high capacity P4P batteries just now and it did have the capacity clearly marked:  89.2Wh, so these would not be limited to 2 spares.  That's good to know!

Oh, DenverDTS, I forgot to mention one other thing:  There are reports of TSA idiots confiscating props because they are pointy and oh-so-dangerous weapons.  You might want to have a spare set in your checked baggage just in case.
2017-7-26
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X-ACTO!
lvl.3
Flight distance : 837799 ft
United States
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Put ducktape in the battery output place and have FAA regestration
2017-7-30
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Mok73ph
New

United States
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I have, on an international flight, I have a vision 2plus, with a nice backpack case, it seems quite big but fits perfectly on the overhead bin, TSA looked but didn't give me a hard time, my flight was domestic from Phoenix to LAX , then LAX to korea and then Philippines.
2017-8-15
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